Welcome.
Take a moment to find your seat.
Find your breath.
And prepare your heart and your mind to be open to connecting with the divine spirit within you as we meditate on the words of this prayer attributed to St.
Francis of Assisi.
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.
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 that we are born to eternal life.
We'll spend the next few minutes listening and imagining the different parts of this prayer and how we might bring them about in our own lives.
Make me an instrument of your peace.
What does the word instrument bring to mind for you?
Perhaps a musical instrument.
A surgical instrument.
A scientific instrument.
A mechanical instrument.
Whatever your association with the word instrument may be,
Each of these connections,
Each of these ideas requires skill to use the instrument for the purpose for which it was designed.
And each of the tools or instruments that we may imagine has some benefit for the user,
For the recipient.
Instruments are used to make sick people well,
To create beautiful music for all to enjoy,
To repair broken things or make important discoveries.
Imagine yourself as an instrument of peace.
How might you be used to create peace for yourself and for others?
What would it feel like to have peace working through you?
For these next phrases,
Listen to the words and spend a few moments imagining situations that relate to the first word of the prayer.
Where there is hatred,
Can you imagine situations of hatred that exist around you,
In your community,
In the world?
Let me sow love.
Can you imagine yourself bringing love into those situations?
How would you do that?
What would it feel like?
How would the situation look different after you had been involved?
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?
The second half of this prayer invites us to put others before ourselves.
It reminds us that in offering good things to those around us,
We in turn offer them and invite them for ourselves.
Listen to these words and think of situations where you could offer goodness to others,
Or situations where you yourself are craving to receive goodness.
How might you begin the circle of offering and receiving?
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.
Where are there instances of death that need to occur in your life?
What are things onto which you are holding that would feel like freedom if you were able to let them go?
Where can you allow death to recur and what might the new life that comes feel like and look like for you?
As you've worked through the words of this prayer,
My hope is that your heart and your mind has been refreshed and that you have a new energy for being a source of goodness in your world.
Let us offer this prayer once more as we close this time of practice.
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.
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.
