Lord, Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace

I met someone yesterday who seemed troubled.  Since we were strangers it didn't seem appropriate to pry into the life of someone I had just met.  But I wanted to help and so I breathed a silent prayer.

This morning during my prayer time the prayer of St Francis came to me, and I immediately began to pray....

Lord make me an instrument of your 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 consolded 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 that we are born again to eternal life.