You might think that, after many years of experience with it, I could no longer be shocked by the way that some people, particularly online, turn disagreement about religion and politics into venomous personal hostility.
But, as a matter of fact, I am still very often shocked by it.
As I was falling asleep last night after yet another close encounter with such weird nastiness, the so-called “Peace Prayer” attributed to St. Francis of Assisi kept going through my mind. I’ve cited it here before, but I feel impelled to post it again:
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.
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.
Amen.
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