Annie Dillard & St. Francis of Assisi: Dual Creation Mystics

I write this meditation on the eve of St. Francis of Assisi’s feast day, and having learned just recently that Annie Dillard has died. They make a wonderful couple: Francis a vibrant nature loving and creation spirituality mystic from the early 13^th century, and Annie Dillard is a mystic celebrator of holy creation in our time. 

Following is a passage from her wonderful book, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, (2011) which I reproduced in my book, Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth—it still moves me to this day:

Nature is, above all, profligate. Don’t believe them when they tell you how economical and thrifty nature is, whose leaves return to the soil. Wouldn’t it be cheaper to leave them on the tree in the first place? This deciduous business alone is a radical scheme, the brainchild of a deranged manic-depressive with limitless capital. Extravagance! Nature will try anything once.

I love her sassiness and wildness in responding to Nature and science and her irreverence in attempting to name the Creator. How she weaves nature, science, religion and humor into a single whole.

She writes: “If we were to judge nature by common sense or likelihood, we wouldn’t believe the world existed.” This echoes marvelously the observation by Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel who talks of “radical amazement” and how “the world is not just here. It shocks us into amazement.” And “wonder rather than doubt is the root of knowledge.”

Annie Dillard was a person of wonder and thus appreciation, like her sister Mary Oliver and her brother Francis. Like Meister Eckhart, who tells us, “if the only prayer you say in your whole life is ‘Thank You,’ that would suffice,” Annie says: “I think the dying pray at the last not please but thank you, as a guest thanks his host at the door.” 

She reminds us that a molecule of chlorophyll is identical in its composition to a molecule of hemoglobin—except for one tiny difference. A single atom of magnesium makes chlorophyll chlorophyll, but substitute a single atom of iron and you have red blood.

How alike is our red blood and the green of nature! Another affirmation of Hildegard’s embrace of viriditas or greening power as the Holy Spirit in us all.

Posing the question, “Do stones talk?” she concludes that a stone talks but it takes them 10,000 years to speak one word! So we must be patient. I praise indigenous peoples who, when praying in sweat lodges with heated stones, get them to talk on the spot. I have experienced this myself.

Thomas Berry says that Europe created its theology, and Central and South America created its Liberation Theology, while North America birthed Creation Spirituality/Theology. Consider Walt Whitman and Hermann Melville; Emerson, Thoreau, Emily Dickinson; John Muir (originally from Celtic Scotland) Thomas Berry, Thomas Merton, Mary Oliver, Wendell Berry, my work ,and so many more creation mystics from the American soil. Annie Dillard surely joins these others.

Now let us turn briefly to St. Francis, known to all as a lover of wolves and birds, trees, caves and people, especially the lepers and those different from ourselves who may make us afraid.

His greatest poem balanced the masculine and feminine in nature, “brother sun and sister moon,” “sister water and brother fire.” It reveals a profoundly balanced consciousness that unites the masculine and the feminine, the yang and the yin, within his own psyche and view on the world.  

He talked of “Mother Earth” as indigenous peoples do, alerted us not to take creation for granted, and preferred praying in caves to praying in churches. He responded to a frequently broken heart with more joy and more generosity. He visited a Muslim leader supposedly to convert him, but came back dancing Sufi circle dances. A deep ecumenist?

Thank you, Annie. Thank you, Francis.

To read the transcript of Matthew Fox’s video meditation, click HERE.

Please note that due to a technical glitch, part of the video was cut off at the beginning. The first minute should read as follows: 

Good morning. In our video today, we’re honoring St. Francis, whose feast day was Sunday, and also Annie Dillard. And in particular, I want to share with you her thoughts from her book, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, which won the Pulitzer prize. She’s a wonderful thinker, and lover of Creation. She says “a meteorological journal of the mind” is what she’s writing here. “I am no scientist,” she says: “I am a wanderer with a background in theology, and a penchant for quirky facts.” Theology and a penchant for quirky facts. 

Banner Image: Brother Sun and Sister Moon meet in the sky. Photo by Ramon Perucho on Pixabay. 

Queries for Contemplation

How has your spirituality been affected by Annie Dillard and/or by Francis of Assisi? How do you hear them speaking to the deepest challenges of our time including humanity’s role in Global Warming and in combatting it? 

Related Readings by Matthew Fox

Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth, pp. 44f. 

Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior for Our Times, p. 7. 

The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance, pp. 112-114. 

Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality. 

Christian Mystics: 365 Readings and Meditations. 

Hildegard of Bingen: A Saint For Our Times. 

The Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce Wisdom for Hard Times. 

Charles Burack, ed.,  Matthew Fox: Essential Writings on Creation Spirituality. 

Sheer Joy: Conversations with Thomas Aquinas on Creation Spirituality. 

Matthew Fox and Rupert Sheldrake, Natural Grace: Dialogues on Creation, Darkness, and the Soul in Spirituality and Science.