Feast Day of Saint Francis of Assisi - October 4

“Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Water,
which is very useful and humble and precious and chaste.”

This particular translation of St. Francis’ Canticle of the Sun is found on the Franciscan Friars website identifying it as the first poem to be written in vernacular Italian, probably in the Umbrian dialect.

Other translations of this text and melody have been singing within me as we approach this feast of St. Francis. Perhaps you also are humming All Creatures of Our God and King (a translation from the Italian by William H. Draper, circa 1919, in CBW 543), (below),  and Marty Haugen’s Canticle of the Sun (CBW 542).

The translation above is written in a prose style making it difficult to set to a metred melody. Of interest though are the adjectives “useful, humble, precious, chaste”.  This 2026 Season of Creation highlights care for water and our relationship with water – water that is ever so useful and precious. As the world awakens to its relationship with water, “useful and precious” stand as beacon calls against our destructive treatment of water, our overuse of water and misuse of water. The adjectives “humble” and “chaste” reflect the unique personhood of water – water as created gift with rights for protection.

What St. Francis understood in 1225 and expressed in his mystical relationship with all God creates has been reflected in the 2015 encyclical Laudato Si. Now in 2026 as we conclude the marking of this Season of Creation may we who have inherited this song of praise become heralds for the precious, humble, chaste, useful gift of water.

-Sister Loretta Manzara, csj

Image: Nick Castelli @nickcastelliphotography / Unsplash

World Water Day - March 22, 2022

Seeing with new eyes

Image: Unsplash/Silvan Schuppisser

I turn on the tap and water flows. But where does it come from?

London, Ontario's water system and supply of clean water come from both Lake Huron and Lake Erie, through a network of treatment plants, reservoirs, and pumping stations made up of more than 1,620 kilometres of pipes.

Being a city gal, I am used to the fact that water from the Great Lakes moves through pipes to purification stations and then into my tap. I have childhood memories of visiting relatives at their summer cottage where my aunt pumped water from the well directly into her sink. That water comes from aquifers.

Aquifers are geological formations of rocks, sands and gravels that hold water. This water feeds springs, rivers, lakes, and wetlands, and also seeps into the ocean depending on the geographical area. The water accumulates from rain and snowfall.

This year for World Water Day, March 22, 2022, we are invited to celebrate and recognize the importance of groundwater (water from aquifers) – the invisible gift that supports drinking water, sanitations systems, farming, industry, and ecosystems.

People who draw drinking water from private wells do not currently have any enforceable safeguards. “Over 40 municipal drinking water systems throughout Ontario are not covered by the Clean Water Act.” See: https://watercanada.net/feature/ontario-drinking-water-safe

The data sheet for World Water Day 2022 states that almost all liquid freshwater in the world is groundwater, and it will play a critical role in adapting to climate change. Life will not be possible without groundwater.

So how do we protect groundwater?

Contribute to the voices opposing the provincial government’s permit to Blue Triton to continue to take 3.6 million liters of water daily from the Aberfoyle Plant, and 1.1 million liters of water per day from the Hillsbourgh location.

Read Wellington Water Watchers, World Water Day Statement: Wellington Water Watchers.

To avoid depletion requires policies on energy, land use and irrigation.

For a good news story, read what is developing among the Dairy Farmers of Canada: https://dairyfarmersofcanada.ca/en/who-we-are/our-commitments/sustainability/water.

World Water Day each year reminds us to cherish water as gift, as medicine,  as sacred, and to ensure that water is available for everyone without becoming a commodity.

2 billion people live without access to safe water. Let’s support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal #6 to achieve water and sanitation for all by 2030.

Raise a glass and look with new eyes!

World Water Day 2022

-Sister Loretta Manzara, csj

We are a Blue Community.