MAKE ME AN INSTRUMENT
Dear Friends,
No matter what your religion, or even if you have no religion at all, you’ve probably heard of St. Francis of Assisi at some point in your life. He’s the one who is always on the birdbaths and is known for his relationship to nature and animals. This week is the traditional celebration of his feast day because he died on Oct. 3, 1266, – a very long time ago, and after all these centuries, he is even more well known for a prayer that is attributed to him which is aptly called, The Prayer of St, Francis of Assisi. I learned, and even memorized this prayer as a young boy, and I always loved it and made it a kind of mission statement for myself. It spoke to me about how I wanted to live my life and the person I wanted to become. It is a bequest to God, to the Universe, to our Higher Power, asking to be in the service of Love. It is an appeal to the bigger soul of the cosmos and our own soul as well, and it can be a personal manifesto. Regardless, I would like to tweak it a bit today and share it with you as a possible meditation. I find it enormously helpful in times of struggle and strive, in times when I may feel enraged or overwhelmed, in times I don’t know, or am fearful of what the future may bring. As a meditation, I believe it offers a pathway to wholeness and healing, as it has for me many times over throughout my life, and I hope it may be for each of you.
Make me an instrument of peace.
Where there is hatred, let me choose love and bring love.
Where there is injury and hurt, let me bring compassion and pardon.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
Where there is sadness, joy.
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.
As together we remember all those who we love and who have been born to eternal life, I wish you each Peace and Serenity, Kevin