Two or More are Gathered

Not only did the beastly creatures experience the reverential practices of the Franciscan worship; the fairies too, were introduced to Christendom through the magnificent outdoor services the Saint would perform daily - twice daily - in the forest.

For Francis certainly did have a way of speaking to the hearts of all, and reintroducing their souls back to God. This was his single-most consignment - a living pledge that he enacted, and reenacted, within his own heart daily.

The Elvish are by their very nature extremely reverential. They are the esoteric life: their consciousness is of pure spirit, and only lightly enters into the heaviness of the Material World as it staggers throughout the universe.

He was first and foremostly, a devotee to the pure contemplation of goodness being the very foundation of all life. However, on occasion he had excised a brother from the community if he had found them to be lazy in their morals, or dark in their desires. Francis did not love them any less, he just could not abide their presence - for certain elements would perhaps contaminate the communal family were he to permit them to stay …

The tiniest of faeries would line the trees like Xmas lights gathering for the Holy Service; singing their psalms alongside the Brothers; splashing in and out of the communion cup, fully immersed, with their baptism complete.

Pre-dawn Hannah Mary would replace the water above the fire, and knead the bread into small balls, before lowering the metal basket into the wood oven that was dug into the ground.

It was no small effort - over a hundred of these little rounds or knots of dough would go into the furnace daily, to later evolve oh so fragrantly into for the breakfast to come.

One morning, when she had just placed the very last one, and lowered her basket, drawing across the metal plate at the top to then sit the kettle upon, she looked over to where the visiting Hode was sitting alongside Francis in prayer. To her surprise she saw there in the half-light there were not two, but three gathered.

The third figure was also head down in meditation, and there appeared to be the slightest aura of light around him, reflected from what, she could not see. An hour later he was gone.

“Who was that with you at Lauds I saw?” she asked the Hode tentatively offering him a small plate of berries.

“Christos”, said the Hode sincerely - looking at her with the deepest of eyes.

“Not many can see Him”, he said out loud as an afterthought, musing that Hannah held the power to do this.

“Christos it was, Hannah Mary - the very Christ Himself.”

She could see that he was speaking in earnest. Although the Hode was good humoured, he never made a joke. He could tell of parables and give stories with parallel meanings, but he never contradicted himself with an untruth.

“The Christ?” she asked hesitantly.

He nodded affirmatively.

And that very morning she marvelled to find that inside her small clay oven, there were double the number of bread rolls, and they were twice their usual size and wonderingly tasty.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses- Azlander Series