Good Morning, St Francis...Hello LIFE!

Prayer Of St. Francis

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 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.

Amen.

One of my devotional readings this morning included the Prayer of St. Francis. I was first introduced to this prayer in recovery circles...where it is widely referred to and circulated. It is a wonderful reminder & reference point for me to see daily and be aware of. It accurately reflects the focus on others that I try and maintain in my life. It also covers some HUGE areas in terms of the notion of love, understanding and FORGIVENESS.

It was by reading such writings as this prayer, that I really began to see that I was already "on board" as it were...in terms of believing basic, Christian concept's. I had no issue with the content of this, in fact I never did disagree with any of it, still the whole notion of "being Christian" was still the main obstacle for me. I rarely ever had any disagreement with basic principles of Christianity...on the contrary I always held these beliefs in the highest regard and continue to do so today.

When I read through this today I still am greatly moved by it's suggestion that I: Become "an instrument of peace" and it's other suggestions of love, instead of loving, give instead of receiving, pardon, console, understand, etc., etc.

These were nuts and bolts, basic things I could try and do each day in my new life of recovery and I could really see the result, almost right away and trust me...in the early days stuff needed to be as simple as possible to follow through on and any visible positive result was so ENCOURAGING. So this how we started to build a life, a block at a time of these kind of suggestions, devotional readings, etc.

The REAL key for me wasn't just being able to read and do such things...No, it was being OPEN MINDED enough initially to listen to them in the first place. I had always know what was best for me....or so I thought. I really didn't and in fact often created most of my own problems...For once, I needed to listen to others and once I was able to do that, things really started to look up for me. It was all part of of a slow process of learning new principles and applying them in my every day life. Things atrted to get better and that was encouraging enough for me to keep trying...a