Mietzke's Holden Adventure

Jordyn helped to give the talk at vespers today. The topic for the Lenten season has been Saints and Heroes. Different people get up and share about people whose lives have impacted their own. Jordyn and Sue decided that they would like to share about the life of Saint Francis. When Jordyn was in the second grade her class had studied about Saints and Francis had been their class hero. She had learned many stories about his life and decided to share the story about the Wolf of Gubbio, which she had done as a class play at the Waldorf School.
The wolf of Gubbio is a story about a lone wolf who is terrorizing the town of Gubbio and has been eating the town’s livestock and it is rumored that the wolf has even eaten some of the town’s children. Upon hearing about the wolf Saint Francis is filled with compassion for him and went to Gubbio to try to resolve the conflict peaceably. When he got to the town he went to the town center and began to preach about the love that God has for all living things and in the middle of his sermon has people began to gather around him he asked the towns people about the wolf and offered to go to the wolfs lair to make peace with the beast. The town’s people began to laugh at Saint Francis all but one woman who spat at the laugher’s feet and offered to take Francis to the wolf. The town’s people were astonished and followed Saint Francis and the woman to the wolf’s lair and looked on as Francis approached. When Francis and the woman got within a yard of the opening they heard a low growl behind them and the sound of the wolf rushing towards them. Francis made the sign of the cross over the woman and then again over the wolf which slowed the wolf down.
Then Francis spoke to the wolf and said” Brother wolf, I have come in peace” He looked at the wolf with great love and then said. “I have come to ask you to be the protector of Gubbio. In return, the town’s people will offer you shelter and respect and you shall never want for food.” Then Francis reached out his hand to the wolf in a sign of friendship and the wolf came forward and put his Paw in Francis’s hand. Francis leaned into the wolf and talked with him for a great while and no one ever heard what was said between them, but when they were through the wolf walked with Francis and the town’s people back to Gubbio and the wolf became protector of the town.
Jordyn did such a good job of telling the story and remembered so many details! She then told why she liked Saint Francis. Then Sue told of her admiration for Saint Francis and then spoke of the importance of our passions. That God desires passionate people who are willing to give of themselves in the world through love. The whole thing was really quite beautiful. She used Francis as an example of someone who lived out his passions for creatures great and small. Who went against the grain of society and lived an example of peace and love and challenged the bureaucracy and corruption of the early church. His example led to much change.