Make me an instrument of thy peace

Franco Zeffirelli movie of 1972.

I was first introduced to 12th Century St. Francis of Assisi through the 1972 Franco Zeffirelli movie Brother Sun, Sister Moon.

It was just before this that I came to a living faith in Christ, and my family noticed the changes (argumentative, nonconforming, along with all that pubescent moodiness)[I’m not proud of it].  None the less, my oldest sister gave me a poster of the “Prayer of St. Francis” – a prayer that hung in contradiction to my spiritual beginnings.

I confess it hung there for many years without being understood, or appreciated until I had travelled some distance in spiritual maturity to accept this prayer as my own.

I want to note the line, “Lord, may I not so much seek… to be understood as to understand…” because this is a stream I am in at the moment – the mystery of understanding, the work of it, the cost of it.  Can there be a more fitting prayer for our times?

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.

Lord may I not so much seek to be consoled as to console;

to be understood as to understand;

to be loved as to love.

Because it is in giving that we receive, in pardoning that we are pardoned.