{"id":250,"date":"2011-10-15T21:15:44","date_gmt":"2011-10-16T01:15:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/?p=250"},"modified":"2015-01-22T12:41:44","modified_gmt":"2015-01-22T17:41:44","slug":"for-all-creatures-great-and-small","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2011\/10\/for-all-creatures-great-and-small.html","title":{"rendered":"For All Creatures, Great and Small"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>
Howdy fellah!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

This is Reason #374 why I don\u2019t live in \u201cthe big city.\u201d I rumbled up the driveway in the Mustang<\/a>, and as I lined her up to back into the garage, I spied \u201cMikey\u201d in all his camouflaged glory crawling up the side of the other car. Sounds like a lead-in for an article in Big Backyard<\/a><\/em> magazine, doesn\u2019t it?
\n
\nI did a little digging on the web, and learned that there are over 2100 species of mantodea<\/em>, from, get this, 15 different families of them around the world. Who knew? *God knew.* And where did they get their name? Here\u2019s what the Online Etymology Dictionary<\/a><\/em> reports,<\/p>\n

1650s, \u201ctype of insect that holds its forelegs in a praying position\u201d (especially the praying mantis, Mantis religiosa), from Gk. mantis, lit. \u201cone who divines, a seer, prophet,\u201d from mainesthai \u201cbe inspired,\u201d related to menos \u201cpassion, spirit\u201d (see mania). The insect so called for its way of holding the forelimbs as if in prayer. Also used in Greek for some sort of grasshopper (Theocritus).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How about them apples? I figure he\u2019s a male because he is so small. I named him Mikey because it goes well with \u201cmantis,\u201d and I was amazed looking at him, and his wonderful colors. It looks like he\u2019s wearing \u201cdesert cammies\u201d to me. As I was studying him intently, an odd thought popped into my head. \u201cI wonder what St. Francis would say about you Mikey?\u201d In his poem (prayer?) Canticle of the Sun<\/em> he writes,<\/p>\n

All praise be yours, my Lord, through all that you have made.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Perhaps he might have prayed the following about this praying mantis,<\/p>\n

Be praised, my Lord, through Brother Mantis,<\/em><\/p>\n

Through whom you protect our crops from pests.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

How mysterious he is, how devout, with angelic wings from on high.<\/em><\/p>\n

That\u2019s what popped into my head, anyway. And then I ran inside the house (to grab the camera) yelling,<\/p>\n

\u201cThe coolest praying mantis ever is crawling on my car! Come and see!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
My name is \u201cMikey\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is Reason #374 why I don\u2019t live in \u201cthe big city.\u201d I rumbled up the driveway in the Mustang, and as I lined her up to back into the garage, I spied \u201cMikey\u201d in all his camouflaged glory crawling up the side of the other car. Sounds like a lead-in for an article in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":140,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[24,25,1990,22,11],"class_list":["post-250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-living","tag-beauty","tag-my-big-backyard","tag-nature","tag-poetry","tag-prayer"],"yoast_head":"\nFor All Creatures, Great and Small<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This is Reason #374 why I don't live in "the big city." 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