Sitting with St. Francis

 

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 may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved, as to love. St. Francis of Assisi

 

This is one of St. Francis’ most famous quote/prayers.  I am struck by that first line: am I really an instrument of God’s peace, or am I a loud, crashing cymbal just trying to get more likes on social media?  Do I sow love or hate?  Do I practice forgiveness or lug grudges around in the backpack of life?  Do I give in to criticism and cynicism and pointing out where everything is wrong, or do I also notice and name the goodness and God-ness of the world?  Do I join the arguing and bullying, or do I offer light, love, curiosity, and care to a broken world?  To be sure, St. Francis’ prayer can lead us to dualism, where we think it is either/or.  That we must always be pardoning, faithful, loving, joyful, shiny happy people holding hands all the time.  This would be difficult and might lead us to think it is only up to us.  The point of a prayer isn’t that this prayer is a to-do for us to check off, but an invitation for God to infuse and inspire our living.  Prayer is about setting our intention for the direction our energy will flow.  Prayer is opening my ears/heart/life to God’s vision of what could be in this world.  I don’t think I will ever cross off and accomplish living this way.  I don’t think I will ever cross the finish line of always and forever embodying this prayer.  Yet, this prayer gives me a different way to live.  St. Francis isn’t interested in our beliefs or how well we know the Bible; St. Francis wants us to live our faith in the world.  From how we offer our time/talent/treasure to how we let God guide our energy to embody the words above.  I love that St. Francis’ prayer allows room for diversity within unity.  The way you share and show faith can be different from me, but together (with God’s grace) there is harmony.  You could pray these words every day and never exhaust what they mean, because life is constantly changing and offering us new ways of sowing God’s love where we are and with the people we meet.  So may you and I find ways to let this prayer awaken our minds and energize our souls in such a time as this.  Amen.