Tag: Prayer

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Praying Creatively with St Francis’ Canticle of the Creatures

Dr. Jennifer Fox Eades

Most high, omnipotent good Lord (Our Kindest Grandmother Adored), To you be creaseless praise outpoured, And blessing without measure. From you alone all creatures came, No-one is worthy you to name.

My Lord (God) be praised by Brother (Sister) Sun, Who through the skies his (her) course does run, And shines in brilliant splendour. With brightness he (she) does fill the day, And signifies your boundless sway.

My Lord (God) be praised by Sister Moon, And all the stars that with her soon Will point the glitt’ring heavens. Let wind and air and cloud and calm, And weathers all repeat the psalm.

By Sister Water then be blessed, Most humble, useful, precious, chaste. Be praised by Brother (Sister) Fire; Cheerful is he, (she) robust and bright, And strong to lighten all the night.

By Mother Earth my Lord be praised; Governed by you she has upraised What for our life is needful. Sustained by you though every hour, She brings forth fruit and herb and flower.

My Lord (God) be praised by those who prove In free forgiveness their love Nor shrink from tribulation. Happy, who peaceably endure; With you Lord  (Mother) their reward is sure.

By Death our Sister praised be, From whom no one alive can flee, Woe to the unprepared. But blessed be those who do your will And follow your commandments still.

Most High omnipotent good Lord (Our Kindest Grandmother adored) To you be ceaseless praise outpoured and blessing without measure. Let every creature thankful be And serve in great humility.

The Canticle of the Creatures is a hymn that St Francis wrote near the end of his life. It expresses his sense of the profound sacredness and inter-connectedness of all creation. I love it and sing a version of it more or less every day, and have done so for nearly 15 years. And I do so – creatively. I quite deliberately play with the words. Because, like most God-talk throughout history and round the world and in all traditions (and all faiths) it assumes that the Holy is male and exclusively names God as He.

Which, at this point in my life and my spiritual path, I find …..unhelpful.

So, generally, I change the genders of Brother Sun and Sister Water – sometimes they are Sister Sun and Brother Water. Playing with the genders gently challenges the stereotype that men are always strong and in control and women are always gentle and pure!

I play with the opening.  ‘Most High Omnipotent, good Lord’ becomes  ‘Our Kindest Grandmother Adored’. Someone once asked me which woman ‘imaged’ God for me and I knew at once that it was my beloved grandmother. For me, God is not an omnipotent, royal male (God isn’t female either, of course, God is all genders and none). So I lean on that powerful, personal image in my own praying of the Canticle. In the version above my own adaptations are in bold type. You can make your own!

But I sing this version of the canticle while I walk, or run or cycle in God’s good creation.

I began playing with prayer creatively as a young mother of three children. To carve out time alone was sometimes, frankly, impossible so I learned to pray – with my children. I committed prayers to heart so I wasn’t reliant on books and I would sing or say my prayers with them as I went about the work of the day.

It was a very practical decision.

Years later, I committed the Canticle of the Creatures to heart so that I could sing it on my daily run, and still fit in silent prayer before breakfast, caring for my family, working part-time, studying and helping to lead a church. Again, it was a very practical decision.

Now I have more time available I continue to pray creatively, playfully – and now it is a theological decision. And the version I sing is a theoological decision, too.

Humans, made in the image of a creator God are creative at their core. It is never a question of ‘are you creative?’ but ‘how are you creative?’ And I suspect that most, if not all, people of faith are creative in how they pray and when they pray and where they pray. Yes, there is tradition and that can be beautiful and wonderful. And then there is how we practice that tradition – which will change each time we pray because we pray as embodied creatures whose bodies and lives and environments are changing moment by moment.

I have always prayed creatively but if I am honest I have often felt slightly guilty for doing so. Am I praying ‘properly?’ I have asked myself and even, ‘is this allowed?’ 

Now, I have spent 15 years singing about the Spirit of God incarnate in Sister Sun and Brother Water, Mother Earth and our Grandmother God. I have spent 15 years letting the words of the Canticle sink into my bones with each step as I have run, walked or cycled on our Mother Earth.

And after 15 years I am learning to let go of the guilt and to enjoy my God-given creativity. I am learning to accept that I really am a woman made in image of our creative Mother or Father or Grandmother God – and to be thankful.

Questions for reflection

How are you creative?

Is there an activity in your life you don’t currently see as prayer that you could see as prayer? How might that activity change if you did?

Can you learn by heart – and play with – a part of the Canticle?

A version of this article first appeared in Issue 26 of Little Portion, The Magazine of the Third Order, Society of St Francis, Spring 2025.

My book, Embodying Prayer (2024) is published by Christian Alternative Books

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A woman of peace

Dr. Jennifer Fox Eades

This has been a week when the world has felt full of angry voices and violent actions. It is a week when those of us who work for peace and kindness and care in our world and in our church have been shocked anew by stories of violence and abuse.

It was a week when, bruised and bewildered by the news of my church’s shame, I wondered what on earth I could say to an assembly full of beautiful children and their equally beautiful hard working teachers.

And as I knelt, early on Wednesday morning, in front of an icon of St Clare, it shone in the light of my candle and I knew what I wanted to say. I knew how I wanted to be. So let me tell you her story……

“Clare was a woman of love, a person of prayer and a person of peace. And she always remembered that she followed Christ, the Prince of Peace.

But the times she lived in were not peaceful times. Men of war, men of violence, meant that life was often dangerous for ordinary women and children and men.

And a story is told about St Clare of how, one day, an army of violent men came to attack the little town of Assisi where Clare lived.

And instead of running away and instead of fighting back, St Clare remembered that she followed Christ, the Prince of Peace. And she went into her little church and brought out a  box. And in that box there was a small piece of the bread and a tiny drop of the wine that Christians eat and drink when they remember Christ, the Prince of Peace.

And Clare held that little box and she just stood – and remembered. She remembered all the women and men and children in the town of Assisi. And she remembered Christ, the Prince of Peace. And she remembered that the men of war she could see before her were also children of God.

And on that day, for some reason, the men of war turned back. Some people say they were scared of this little godly woman. I’m not so sure. I think that on that day they, too, remembered peace and remembered that they were children of God. And I think they chose – and it is always a choice, to stand and remember peace and love for themselves.”

So today, sisters and brothers, (and everyone, of any faith, who is reading this IS my sister and my brother) in the face of the violence and injustice and sheer nastiness that can happen in our world I invite you to stand – not to flee and not to fight – but simply to stand for peace, to stand for justice and love and kindness and compassion. And please remember that you – and everyone you meet today – is an infinitely precious child of God.

May She bless you and may She keep you and may She give you Peace.

Spirituality, theology

Embodying Prayer and the Emotional Power of ‘Stuff’

Dr. Jennifer Fox Eades

At the end of this month I have a book coming out, Embodying Prayer. And as I have been reflecting on this important event in my life I have come to realise that I have always done stuff and made stuff to express my deepest feelings.

As a child I made stuff, cuddly toys, aprons, bits of craft projects – and mostly I gave them to my mum to tell her I loved her, that she was so, so important to me.

And of course, I am not unique. All of us give gifts – ‘stuff’ – sometimes shop bought and sometimes homemade – to build up our relationships, to say I value you, you matter to me, I love you.

In some ways, wrinkles aside, I haven’t changed much. I spent the spring months this year knotting prayer bracelets to give to year 6 children in Bollington where I serve as a curate – to tell THEM that they are loved – by my church, St Oswald’s, by God. I wanted them to know …..as they headed off to the scary adventure that is high school….that prayer is more than words. And when words fail or beliefs fail you can still pray ….you can light a candle, you can hold a prayer bracelet and remember that you are loved, valuable and that there is help out there. I wanted them to know that they matter – to God, to the world, to St Oswald’s, to me.

At the beginning of July, my little prayer table at home was COVERED in prayer bracelets – and I and folks in the Sunday congregation prayed with every single one of them. The children recieved ‘pre-prayed-with’ prayer bracelets!

Now, my prayer table is a bit emptier – except I now have cards on it with the names of those we gave the bracelets to – because we are still praying for them.

One of the things I love about the Christian faith is that it is INCARNATIONAL – God becoming a body – a person. God saying that stuff – the stuff we humans touch and the kind things we do – are sacred and eternal.

That’s why we light candles in church  – to put our prayer into a simple action. And in the service called Holy Communion we eat a tiny bit of bread and drink a sip of wine – to connect us to the infinite, to the eternal, to remind us that we matter to the living God.

I still like making stuff. I knot prayer bracelets. I write books. I blog a bit. Stuff matters. As do you. God bless.

Prayer, Spirituality, theology, Well-being and the Alexander Technique

Jennifer’s new book is now available to pre-order

Dr. Jennifer Fox Eades

The publication date is set for 31st August 2024 and it can be pre-ordered here https://www.amazon.co.uk/Embodying-Exploring-Franciscan-Spirituality-Alexander/dp/1803415002/ref=sr_1_1?crid=7J3F68N7I3FQ&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.4FKT9M97sKNo55n2ixCdaw.KG3LoI3ODDqkW2kqLft0HkTM5IA-GJPBglcTLYR-ZMU&dib_tag=se&keywords=jennifer+fox+eades+embodying+prayer&qid=1721157929&sprefix=jennifer+fox+eades+embodying+prayer+%2Caps%2C154&sr=8-1

Prayer, Spirituality

The spiritual practice of picking up litter

Dr. Jennifer Fox Eades

Recently I have developed an alter ego. This alter ego is a litter fairy. She is fast becoming just a little bit obsessive about keeping her locality free from litter.

Now, I have always hated litter. My family will tell you that my usual liberal tendencies fly out the window in the face of people who just can’t be bothered to put their crisp packet in a bin and leave it for others. I thought prison was probably too good for such people. And I got cross about it – I even ranted about it. And yet I still DID nothing about it. It was ‘the council’s’ job – an SEP – somebody else’s problem.

But whether it has been the increased focus on climate change and our environment in the news or the drip, drip, drip of reading Richard Rohr’s Franciscan Daily Meditations from the Center for Action and Contemplation https://cac.org/ I am not sure but I now see things a little differently. I have decided that this is MY planet, MY town, MY street and I can and want to do something, just a little thing, to care for it. And that little thing is, most days and most walks, picking up the crisp packet, the chocolate wrapper and the beer can or McDonald’s cup and putting them in the nearest bin.

You could say that, from being an SEP, somebody else’s problem, I have made it MY problem. But, here’s the interesting thing, it no longer feels like a problem. Seeing picking up a crisp packet as a way of caring for our Mother Earth somehow changes the feel of it. I don’t feel angry anymore – I feel it’s an opportunity to do something, something admittedly very small – for my neighbours, for my street, for my town. And now, rather than getting angry with the folk who drop litter, it occurs to me that people who are careless probably don’t feel very cared for. People who drop litter can’t see the beauty of their environment – don’t know that it is a gift to them to be enjoyed and appreciated – and that is very, very sad. So now, when I pick up the crisp packet I also pray for my Sister or Brother Litter Dropper – that they might see a little more of God’s beautiful world and feel just a tiny bit more cared for.

So, a spiritual practice for Lent? If we all picked up three pieces of litter on every walk we took in Lent our town, our country, our city would look – and feel – more cared for. Which I would call Good News.

Prayer, Silence and stillness, Spirituality, Well-being and the Alexander Technique, What's On

Prayer and the Body: A Workshop

Dr. Jennifer Fox Eades
  • A workshop for people of any faith or none
  • Explore what an embodied spiritual practice might look and feel like
  • As part of the workshop we will make and share bread
  • Free workshop, donations to cost of church heating welcome

Facilitators: Jenny Fox Eades, Alexander teacher and Third Order Franciscan; Nick Eades, Qi Gong and Tai chi practitioner

Saturday 7 December 2019

St Peter’s Church, Windmill Street

Macclesfield, SK11 7HS

11am – 3pm

Wear comfortable clothes, bring a light lunch and a blanket or shawl

‘At the still point of the turning world, there the dance is’