October 4, 2026

My Friends,

For the second year in a row, All Are One Catholic church and First Congregational church of Winona joined our services! We have liturgy in the same building – they in the “big” church space and us in the smaller chapel, and then we always have fellowship together. Our two parishes are very similar in our commitments to living out the call of our brother Jesus and trying to be his “body” in our world, so it is most appropriate that we would pray together too on occasion. As I told those gathered today from both groups in my part of the shared homily – “I think Jesus would approve as he prayed just before he died, “that we all would be one.” Being that yesterday was the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, and this year is the 800th anniversary of Francis’ death in 1226, we thought it would be good to celebrate his work in our world. Because Francis had such a profound love for all created life – people, animals, plants, mountains, seas – all of it, we had a blessing of folks’ pets, (just bringing in their pictures), and the children were encouraged to bring their favorite “stuffies.”

As you will see in the following offerings from Pastor Danielle and myself, she chose to write about Francis and the courage he showed in reaching out to the leper, a defining moment in his life…and the encouragement that we would show that same love and courage in our lives as we work to protect our world to the best of our abilities, and I spoke to our chosen reading from the Book of Genesis extolling the wonders of creation and the fact that after all the creating was done, God said that everything was, “very good!”

We all found this experience very meaningful! Pastor Kathy

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Pastor Danielle

   One of the defining moments of Francis’ life was when he embraced a man afflicted with leprosy. To do so was not only a social taboo, but it was an actual physical risk to Francis. But, he saw the world and all of its inhabitants the way God does – with unyielding love. So, what had once inspired fear and disgust became an opportunity for grace. In that encounter, Francis discovered that God’s love often meets us where we least expect it. Rather than turning away from suffering, he moved toward it, finding Christ in those whom society rejected.

   Yet Francis’ vision extended beyond humanity. He understood all creation as a gift flowing from the goodness of God. The sun, moon, water, fire, animals, and even death itself became companions in praise. In his famous Canticle of the Creatures, he offers a spirituality that sees the entire world as a living testimony to God’s presence.

   Francis did not worship creation; he recognized creation as a window into the Creator.  Every bird’s song, every flowing stream, and every breath of wind became an invitation to gratitude and wonder.

   Francis challenges us to examine the ways we separate ourselves from others and from the created world. Francis reminds us that every human being bears the image of God and every part of creation reveals something of God’s beauty.

   In a world struggling with loneliness, conflict, and environmental degradation, the witness of St. Francis feels especially urgent. He teaches us that the path to peace begins with recognizing our interconnectedness. When we see others not as strangers but as siblings, as kin, and when we view the earth not as a possession but as a sacred gift, we begin to live differently.

   The legacy of St. Francis is ultimately a way of seeing. It is the practice of looking at the world with eyes of love and finding traces of the Divine everywhere. When we adopt that vision, ordinary encounters become holy moments, creation becomes a hymn of praise, and every person becomes a reflection of God’s boundless grace.

Pastor Kathy

   As Pastor Danielle and I prepared for this special celebration honoring Francis of Assisi, a saint who exemplified probably more than any other, a profound love for all of God’s created life, we wanted to use a Scripture reading that spoke to the awesomeness of this God-given gift of all created life, and the Genesis reading used today, seemed to do that. 

   As I always say to my community, we “need to go deeper” with any reading.  In the case of the Genesis selection, we can’t just stop with “hearing” about all the created life that our God gave us, including our own precious lives, but to realize that all this goodness has been “entrusted” to us, not just to use, but to be “responsible for.”  Being “responsible for” simply means to treat each person, and our earth, with all its beauty, with love, to the best of our abilities.

   The reading ended with God, “looking, [and we can assume, with love], at all of this creation” [and] “proclaiming that it was [not only] good,” [but] “very good.”

   I believe it was with this sense of all of creation being “very good” that our brother, Jesus carried into his earthly life, to show us the way – a sense that Francis carried throughout his new and renewed life – loving that which appeared both good and not so good.  That my friends is our challenge and the responsibility that God entrusted to each of us who choose to say, “yes” to following him!  To have that sense too, that our beautiful earth, complete with plants, animals, great mountains, seas, and people of many different cultures, faces and races were “conceived” in love by our loving God, and who entrusted us to see a piece of God’s face in each one to the best of our abilities. 

   We, as always, look to Jesus to find the way when it is hard, as Francis no doubt did, before he was able to embrace the leper, as Pastor Danielle spoke of.  We will each need the memory and the modeling of both Jesus and Francis as we encounter the “lepers” in our own lives – those that we may find it hard to be with, to love.  In conclusion then my friends, let us, going forward, turn to each other for encouragement in being our best selves, especially in these most trying times that we live in – sometimes I will carry the hope of better times for you, sometimes you will for me, and together, we will model the right behavior – in memory of Francis, in memory of Jesus. Amen? Amen!

My friends, I am presently reading, again, parts of Nora O’Donnell’s 2026 offering, We, the Women, and came upon the following quote from Mary McLeod Bethune, whom you may know came out of a large family that lived in slavery in South Carolina, with Mary being the 14^th child of 17, and the first, not born into slavery as she came into the world in 1875.  But, she went on to devote her entire adult life, dying at 79 years of age, to the betterment of her black sisters and brothers, familial and otherwise through education and the political system in the time of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. 

   Before she died, she wrote the following: “I leave you love. Love builds. It is positive and helpful – it is more beneficial than hate.”  Now coming out of the hateful system of slavery in this country, this is quite a statement!  And it prepares us well, I feel, for today’s readings, for each one really lets us know that we are loved by our God.  Now at first glance you may not agree, because to get to their full meaning, each one encourages us to, as we say here, “go deeper.”

   The 1^st reading from Isaiah is a case in point as God lets us know, through the prophet, that indeed, “God thinks differently than we do!”  Now if we were only looking topically at God’s words, we might be apt to say, “So yes, what does that mean?”  And those words are followed by, “Seek God while God can be found.” 

   And here too, God may sound somewhat “arrogant,” except for the fact, that as displayed in Jesus’ story in today’s gospel of  “the last shall be first and the first last,” God does indeed think differently that we do, and it would behoove us to try and understand, through this story, just how loving our God truly is. 

   Over time many people, probably most people, get “hung up” on this story thinking in a rather “black and white” way that the owner seeking workers for his vineyard  is really being quite unfair, when rather than giving an hour’s pay for an hour’s work, he pays all the workers the same no matter how many hours they worked. 

   But my friends, this is a case of where, with the owner – with God, we must go deeper.  We must recognize that those hired at midday, or at day’s end, may have wanted to work the entire day, but no one hired them earlier.  No doubt those who looked healthiest and most able were chosen first.  It is kind of like when teams on the playground, at school are chosen – the biggest kids, and those who are known to be good at the sport, are chosen first – no one wants the little kid, and if truth be told, the girls either.

   The owner of the vineyard (think God) knows the “black and white,” often unfair and unjust ways that we humans operate at times, and basically tries to even things up a bit.  My friends, when we move through our world, operating more or less out of rules and regulations – “the way it is done,” so to speak, in rather black and white ways, we in effect, “distance” ourselves from the “heart” of God. One sees overtime, that God always moves out of the “heart” first, and if you disagree, then you are probably reading a “doctored” version of Scripture. 

  Paul, in his letter to the Philippians is really speaking out of the “heart of God,” when he encourages the people to, “conduct yourselves in a way worthy of the Gospel…” because he knows that if we walk in Jesus’ footsteps, we will live better, more productive and happier lives.  It is this very idea that Paul wishes, and believes I feel, when he says, “I will never be put to shame for my hopes” … and we might insert, “in you, and all that you are capable of.

   The psalmist in #145 believes and encourages us to believe that we never have to do, what we attempt in our lives, for good, alone – “O God, you are near to all who call on you,” the psalmist says. 

   My friends, in conclusion then, moving back to where we began, with Mary McLeod Bethune’s words that, “Love builds … is more beneficial than hate,” let’s not “overthink” our responses in the needy world in which we live, let’s simply show up, be present, when we do, to what we find in any situation, and do as Mary Bethune said, “what is [most] positive and helpful.

   At present, our parish is part of a budding documentary on women priests – an action, that of women seeking to follow their God-given calls to ordination, that the hierarchy says estranges us from the Catholic church.  But, actually, this is an attempt to simplify our Church, making it more understandable and meaningful to all people – basically returning us to the message of Jesus who wanted all to be included, because he saw God’s desire that we all would be seen as equal  and good, worthy to embody the Christ, and to share that goodness with others. Amen? Amen!