Sunday, April 7, 2013

Praying For Peace

Sometimes the simplicity and the beauty of life hits directly over the head and we completely miss it. The other day I was reading the Prayer of St. Francis and it really hit me that it is a true call to a life of love and compassion that today we oftentimes forget.

Prayer is the archenemy of evil. Prayer can conquer evil and all that is required is that we pray! When prayer overtakes evil as our way of life, then evil is defeated and we enter a life of peace and love. Imagine if human beings prayed and lived the life advocated by St. Francis! What a glorious and wonderful world we would have. I challenge us to take up the mantle of Francis and pray his prayer and lead the life of the prayer. Good will result. Not only, for ourselves, but for those in our community, which in reality is the world.


The Prayer of St. Francis

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;
and 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


Francisco


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