The world depicts St. Francis as a namby-pamby nature lover, but there's a lot more to the saint than that. He had a deep understanding of the nature of sin and the great danger to souls caught in its grip. In his
Canticle of the Creatures he wrote:
Praised be You, my Lord, for our sister bodily death, whom no living man can escape. Woe to those who die in mortal sin, blessed those whom she will find in Your most holy will, for the second death will not harm them.
Mortal sin kills the grace of God in the souls of His creation. No one who dies in the state of unrepented mortal sin can go to heaven. What is mortal sin and what is necessary to commit one?
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