The Prayer of St Francis and Commentary
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Francis warns us that hatred is the first step that will lead a soul onto a very dark path. To hate anything is a sword that cuts away your connection to God. Not in Truth, but in Awareness. To hate any part becomes a seed of great suffering. This does not mean that you must like everything and everyone and every circumstance. The Dalai Lama finds no joy in the destruction of his country and the atrocities committed there, nor did Victor Frankle enjoy being in the concentration camps and watching the murders of his family and people; yet both men went beyond the actions, and remembered the Essence of those who appeared to be persecuting. They deplored the actions and loved the God in those who were acting in hate. And by their love they transformed many who lived in hate and offered light to those darkened minds.

where there is injury, pardon;

When you come from the peace of Being and the Love of being Aware of God's Presence everywhere, who can be injured? In one of the Upanishads it states that the slayer who thinks he slays and the slain who thinks he has been slain, neither know the way of Truth; for the Eternal in Man cannot slay nor the Eternal in Man cannot be slain. The world of men is based on bodies doing good or bad to other bodies. The bad deeds require punishment, retribution of some sort: An eye for an eye syndrome, leaving only a world blind with vengeance. Francis asks of us to be as Jesus who came to remind us that whatever you do to the body it does not mar God's love for His creation. No matter what happens to your body has no bearing on who you are; whether you are nailed to a cross or thrown into the lion pit as were the martyrs. Thieves one day assaulted Ramana at his ashram. When his followers tried to intervene and stop the beating, Ramana told them that they had no right to attack his beaters because his followers were seeing with their bodys eyes and saw not the whole picture of debts having to be repaid. I counseled a woman who told me that a man had broken into her apartment and was proceeding to rape her. As he was on top of her she felt an overwhelming sense of compassion for the suffering of this man and told him that she loved him and that he need not do this. He stopped and was ready to execute her. As she closed her eyes ready for the bullet, while feeling a wonderful calmness, she heard him apologize and disappear. This rape was the most powerful experience of her life. For the man, no doubt he had a hatred for women, and when hatred is not transformed by love, it will lead to giving injury.

where there is doubt, faith;

Doubt is one of the weapons of the mind. What is this doubt? It is the doubt that you are worthy of God's love, of God's protection. If you have caused injury, you will believe you are deserving of retribution and that what you have done has caused God not to call you His own. When in doubt no miracles are possible: it is just cause and effect in a mechanistic universe. Doubt is a box of limitations imposed on your mind, suffocating you to death, shutting out God's infinite love and mercy. Faith is the whispering of Truth that God can do anything through you. God can melt away all errors of the mind, all sin in an instant. Faith is the flag that proclaims you are God's Child and that no matter what you do, God dwells within you and will make use of every thought word and deed (even the most loveless mistakes) and that wherever you go you are inside of the omnipresent Lord. Faith is the paintbrush by which you are to paint your life free of any judgment. Another word for faith is certainty. When you have faith in God's omniscience and your innate Divinity, you will have a certainty about you and will thus possess true Self-confidence. Look how much faith people place in other people who have great reputations, like hiring some agent to get a book published, or the insurance company to take care of you in case misfortune happens or the police to make your life safe. How feeble are such refuges in comparison of taking refuge in God, in All That Is!

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