Lord, make us instruments of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let us sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is discord, union;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.
Grant that we 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
—Francis of Assisi, Quoted in A Treasury of Traditional Wisdom, edited by Whitall N. Perry (Simon & Schuster, 1971)
This prayer appeared in ARCS from PARABOLA, “Giving & Receiving,” Volume 36, No. 2, Summer 2011.
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