The so-called “Prayer of St. Francis”

The so-called “Prayer of St. Francis”

 

Australian scene with clouds and sunlight
Light from beyond streaming through clouds onto the ordinary, mundane, rather drab world below.
(Wikimedia CC; click to enlarge.)

 

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;
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;
It is in dying to self that we are born to eternal life.

 

Although it’s generally ascribed to the great early-thirteenth-century saint, the prayer can’t be traced back any earlier than 1912.

 

But no matter.  It’s still wonderful.

 

 


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