Tuesday, January 11, 2005

A Favorite Prayer

I first heard this prayer on my Walk to Emmaus (http://www.upperroom.org/emmaus) in the spring of 2003. I think it really speaks to the message that Jesus was trying to get people to understand. I go back and forth between the dispair of knowing that I don't live up to this and the hope (the certainty!) that Christ will help me live this more and more if I just ask Him. I hope this prayer means as much to you as it has to me.

Lord, make me an instrument of thy 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; and
where there is 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,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
- Francis of Assisi