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

A National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

Sept. 30th was first observed in 2021 as a federal statutory holiday.  It was in Call to Action #80, which states: “ We call upon the federal government, in collaboration with aboriginal peoples, to establish, as has statutory holiday, a National Day for Truth and Reconciliation to honor Survivors, their families, and communities, and ensure that public commemoration of the history and legacy of residential schools remains A vital component of the reconciliation process.”

Previously, September 30th had been known as Orange Shirt Day which began in 2013 when Phyllis (Jack) Webstad told her story of her first day at St. Joseph Mission Residential School when her shiny new orange shirt bought by her grandmother was taken from her as a six-year-old girl.

Webstad is a residential school Survivor and founder of Orange Shirt Day. She currently serves as ambassador for the Orange Shirt Society. It was in 2013 when she first told the story of how her new orange shirt, a gift from her grandmother, was taken from her on her first day at residential school.

Today, people across Canada and, increasingly in the United States and beyond, wear orange shirts to acknowledge the horrific truths of the genocide committed through the country’s residential school system. But it all began as the childhood experience of Phyllis Webstad of the Stswecem’c Xgat’tem (Canoe Creek Dog Creek) First Nation. By sharing her own personal story, she spoke for thousands of Survivors and those who never made it home. (https://orangeshirtday.org/about/phyllis-story/)

Since then and thanks largely to Webstad’s efforts, which have included publishing five children’s books, the orange shirt has become a symbol of Truth and Reconciliation, a visible reminder of the residential school system along with the message that “Every Child Matters.”

The educational movement highlighted by her story led to Sept. 30 being recognized as Orange Shirt Day, and eventually to the federal government establishing that day as the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. It became a statutory holiday in B.C. in 2023.

Phyllis Webstad’s contributions are foundational to the public awareness and understanding of the history of Canada and its evolving relationship with Indigenous Peoples. Her work to bring about this level of public awareness is monumental and has created a movement towards respect, safety, and justice for all people in Canada and beyond.

Do you have an orange shirt for September 30? Even wearing an orange ribbon can be a meaningful gesture.

By wearing orange, we say:

We remember.
We acknowledge the truth.
We honour survivors and their families.
We commit ourselves to reconciliation.

-Sister Kathleen Lichti, CSJ