The Prayer of St. Francis
For many, many years, this prayer was among the words I spoke to God before I got out of bed in the morning. I found it to be a very profound spiritual exercise to seek to understand more than to be understood. Every aspect of these petitions is as challenging as that one. To be an instrument of God’s peace is a huge thing to yearn for. I believe the church would be blessed if we all asked God for this grace for our own Christian walk and for the witness of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in the world.
Make me, O God, an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me so love,
Where there is injury, pardon,
Doubt, faith,
Despair, hope,
Darkness, light,
Sadness, joy,
O 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 rise to eternal life.
