Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.
Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console;
To be understood as to understand;
To be loved as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
It is in dying that we are born to eternal life.


From The 2009 Abingdon Preaching Annual, cd, p. 445-446.

3 comments:

JAH said...

Thanks for sharing this to start the day...

Anonymous said...

A while back I read this over several times and I was struck by the work "make" in the first line. One of my favorite songs is "Change my Heart Oh God". I decided that I should stop praying for God's help and start praying that he would change me. Do his will, not mine. I hear and read so many prayers asking God to help someone. I think that we are often asking God to help us do what we want. We don't need any help! We need some resurrection. We need some new life. Every time I get in the car to drive somewhere I pray "Lord, make me an instrument of your peace." Ever try to be a instrument of peace out on the road in traffic?

dan said...

Good point, Larry. Thanks. Though I rarely, if ever, try to be an instrument of peace on the road. Not that I shouldn't. I'm just sayin'... :)