Pray & Work for Peace

This week I am encouraging my congregation to pray the following prayer of peace that is most commonly attributed to St. Francis of Assisi…

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.

By praying consistently for the Lord to make us instruments of his peace, we will become more aware of the opportunities around us to be peacemakers.

For, as this prayer reminds us, this week we will see examples of hate, we will experience injury of some sort, we will come across those who are doubting themselves and God, we will interact with someone in despair, we will sense the darkness of sin and evil, and we will contact sadness – our own or someone else’s.

But, if we are resolved to be instruments of the Lord’s peace, we can seize those moments and sow seeds of love, pardon, faith, hope, light, and joy – seeds of peace.

Let’s make the world around us a little bit better this week by making the peace of Christ known to others through our example!