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Great prayers, like any work of literature, only last if they hold depths that can be mined for fresh insights in each new age. St Francis' prayer is of that quality. Janaka Stagnaro's commentary reopens this familiar prayer for the 21st century.

The Prayer of St Francis and Commentary

Lord, make me an instrument of thy 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 do 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

Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace;

Why is peace the first attribute Francis asks for? Because without peace how can you come to God? Without peace there is fear. Fear is chased away by one who is an embodiment of peace. Ramana Maharshi, a sage of India, said that to know who your teacher is you must feel peace around him or her. To be an instrument of peace is to know you are with God right Now. Not some time in the future. To be in peace is to feel the wings of angels around you, and as you walk through the world their wings will blow a soft breeze in the normal world where suffering abides. When you feel that Presence of peace you are feeling your divine nature that has never changed, nor ever will. As A Course in Miracles (ACIM) states: I am as God created me. All I need to do is to remember who I AM.

where there is hatred let me sow love;

From out of peace love flows. Out of the peace of Being comes the Awareness that God is my love and that I am God's love and that love explodes into all creation. There is only one Parent and all creatures are His/Her children. There is only the one body of God and all creatures God's parts. How can there exist hatred? How can there be the cutting away that enmity demands when all is God? Where is the shadow of hatred in the Light of love?

The Prayer of St Francis and Commentary

//Continued