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;
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;
It is in dying
to self that we are born to eternal life.
Attributed
to Francis Bernadone, perhaps the most universally loved of Christian saints,
who were born in Assisi, Italy, in 1181 or 1182. At the age of twenty two,
after a sudden illness that brought him almost to the point of death, he left
his home and inheritance to follow an injunction that he felt he received from
Christ himself: "Francis, go and rebuild my Church." Three great
Franciscan orders quickly grew around the monks, nuns, and lay disciples who
responded to his joyful example of universal love and selfless service.
Courtesy: easwaran.org; Image: tinybuddha
