Monthly Archives: October 2011

I was thinking…

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October 28, 2011

It is the end of October and I am tackling my first “I was thinking…”.  I was unsure of what I should think about?  A current educational topic like transformation?  Events at school?  Topics for my own professional learning?  Instead of  addressing these I have decided to share one of my favorites prayers, the Peace Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi:

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, 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,

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.

 

I have always enjoyed this prayer.  Possibly because it gives us an example of what we do, but more importantly it gives us a vision of what we should do.

We should love, not hate and pardon, not injure.  St. Francis provides us a vision.  A world where we can pardon, be pardoned and be “born to eternal life.”  Our own personal life, school community, parish community and our larger society would be a better place if we could only practice and live the vision of the Peace Prayer of St. Francis.