Fig. 37. The Nymphs. Corot. Louvre, Paris

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ST. FRANCIS PREACHING TO THE BIRDS

Giotto di Bondone (1266?-1337)

ne time more than six hundred years ago St. Francis preached the dearest sermon to "My Sisters the Birds" that you ever heard. He said to them as they lifted their little heads to listen to his words:

"Ye are beholden unto God your Creator, and always and in every place it is your duty to praise him! Ye are bounden to him for the element of the air which he has deputed to you forever-more. You sow not, neither do you reap. God feeds you and gives you the streams and fountains for your thirst. He gives you the mountains and the valleys for your refuge, tall trees wherein to make your nests, and inasmuch as you neither spin nor reap God clothes you and your children, hence ye should love your Creator greatly, and therefore beware, my sisters, of the sins of ingratitude, and ever strive to praise God."