This prayer is on my mind today.\u00a0 It is often wrongly attributed to St. Francis, but is clearly modern.<\/p>\n
When something like this is repeated by enough different people, it can start to sound like a clich\u00e9, but none of these requests are trivial-minded!\u00a0 The only real flaw with the structure is that it focusses on the word “me” far too often for a prayer that is supposed to be about “self-forgetting”.\u00a0 Nevertheless, there is some real spiritual beauty here that is worth meditating on:<\/p>\n
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
\nWhere there is hatred, let me bring love.
\nWhere there is offense, let me bring pardon.
\nWhere there is discord, let me bring union.
\nWhere there is error, let me bring truth.
\nWhere there is doubt, let me bring faith.
\nWhere there is despair, let me bring hope.
\nWhere there is darkness, let me bring your light.
\nWhere there is sadness, let me bring joy.<\/p>\nO Master, let me not seek as much
\nto be consoled as to console,
\nto be understood as to understand,
\nto be loved as to love,
\nfor it is in giving that one receives,
\nit is in self-forgetting that one finds,
\nit is in pardoning that one is pardoned,
\nit is in dying that one is raised to eternal life.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nLord, may it be so!\u00a0 And as every Eastern Orthodox priest recites during the liturgy: “Forgive those who hate us, and those that love us.”\u00a0 Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This prayer is on my mind today.\u00a0 It is often wrongly attributed to St. Francis, but is clearly modern. When something like this is repeated by enough different people, it can start to sound like a clich\u00e9, but none of … Continue reading