A Reflection on the Peace
Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi
Since my annual retreat (2013)
found me at a Franciscan friary, I thought it would be a good exercise to
digest for myself Saint Francis of Assisi’s “Peace Prayer”. It gave me a
blessed opportunity to really think out this prayer as becoming an instrument of
God’s peace in this world, but also how becoming that instrument fulfills the
vocation that I am called to.
I now offer this to you, for
your own reflection. It’s not exhaustive, but only a starting point for a
conversation with God.
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Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace – What does that mean? One plays an instrument, often to
inspire another; to calm and console another. How is the Lord “playing me”? (Of
course, not in a negative sense.) How is He using me to call others to Himself?
Am I like a brass instrument? A woodwind? A stringed instrument? A piano? An
organ? Is my sound pleasing to others? Does it call them to know the peace of
the Lord? Or am I being an instrument, thinking I am doing the Lord’s will, but
only bringing attention to myself? And am I allowing Him to make me that
instrument – to be crafted by the Hands of God? Or do I think I’ve been made “good
enough” to do His will? Do I allow myself the opportunities to be tuned and
fixed, or do I just allow myself to squeak and be out of tune, not allowing God’s
breath (the Holy Spirit) to blow through me properly?
Where there is hatred, let me sow love – In the midst of
confusion and doubt in life (in general, in my own, in another’s), do I plant
the seeds of God’s eternal love? Does my life reflect the height, depth, and
width of God’s eternal love? Or do my thoughts, words and deeds, does my very
presence compound the hatred in the situation? How am I the conduit of God’s
love at every moment of my life?
Where there is injury, pardon – Do I allow God to use
me as a source of healing in the course of life? Do I reflect the workings of
the Divine Physician in my own thoughts, words and actions? Do I use my own
brokenness to foster the healing of God? Have I forgiven myself so that I can
forgive others? Have I tried to help others past the pain, the injury in their
own lives to see and experience God’s pardon – especially as a priest in the
Sacrament of Reconciliation? Last, but not least, have I forgiven those in my
life so that I may know God’s gift of healing before I can extend it to others?
Where there is despair, hope – Do I bring the gift
of hope to those who seem to have little of it in their lives? Do those who
despair in their lives see in and through me the Presence of the One who IS
Eternal Hope? In those moments of despair in my own life, have I turned
exclusively to the hope that is given to me by God, or have I turned to things
which offer a false hope, which leads me further down the road of despair? Do
my thoughts, words and actions portray something that will bring others hope
when all hope – and the presence of God – seems lost?
Where there is darkness, light – I was given the light of Christ at my Baptism. Have I
placed that light under a bushel basket, or have I let it become the light of
the city on a hill? When others are lost in the darkness of sin and death, do I
push them farther into the darkness, or do I guide them to Christ by the light
that He has given me to share? Am I that guiding light or the extinguisher of
the flame?
And where there is sadness, joy – Joy is a sign of life. Does my life signify a sense of joy?
Or am I a prophet of sadness? Does my life mirror the joy given to the world by
Jesus, or does sadness proceed from my heart from the hardships that endure in
my life? Do I radiate a joy that others want to have in their lives? Do I bring
others to know that eternal joy in their relationship with Jesus Christ, or do
I push them into a sense of “false joy”, and keep them in sadness through the
fleeting happiness the world tends to bring?
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled
as to console – People need to know
that someone cares for them in this life. They need to know that God cares for
them. I need to be that instrument of consolation, bringing the healing melody
to others to let them know that someone else DOES care for them in their
sadness, in their despair. That in the darkness of life, consolation can be
found in the small, warm glow of the fire of God’s love.
To be understood as to understand – When others lack that sense of peace, it’s not up to me
to be understandable in my thoughts, words or actions, rather it’s important
that I understand the other, so that they can see in and through me the
presence of God. It doesn’t matter if what I say makes sense to them. They’re
not looking for my wisdom (or lack-thereof); they’re just asking to have that
lack of peace in their lives understood.
To be loved as to love
– We all
want to be loved. We all need to experience God’s eternal love in our lives.
But how do I do that? How do I love without asking for love in return? It truly
is a sacrifice in one’s life to do this, and it’s something that I must learn
to do daily. I must not be the one to seek the love – I must always be the one
to supply the love. Unconditionally. Hopefully, love will be returned to me at
the proper time and in the proper way. Until then, I love without counting the
cost. I must be the one with the open arms, signifying God’s love for the other
whether they realize that they need it or not. I must love, and learn how not
to be loved. I must be able to sacrifice the love for another, just as Christ
did for me (and for many) on the Cross.
For it is in giving that we receive – The giving of my own self is its own reward. The more
that I give the life, love and presence of God to others, the more that I am
able to receive those same gifts from God through Himself – and through others.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned – I must learn to forgive so that I may be forgiven. That
begins with forgiving myself for anything that I’ve done against God or my
neighbor . . . OR EVEN MYSELF! I must be willing to seek the grace to forgive
others if I must learn what it is to be forgiven in life. And the more I learn
to forgive, the more the Lord will bestow His grace upon me, because I have
open myself to know that peace.
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life – We already have a taste of this through the Sacrament of
Baptism, where we died with Christ so as to be a new creation in this life. We
are not destined for this world. We need to be born again, again. Yes – born three
times!: Naturally, Sacramentally, Eternally. And it is this final birth that we
gain the fullness of the peace of God. As much as we work for it here on Earth,
we will never have it completely until we are reborn to that eternal life in
and with Christ. Yes, dying to ourselves so that others may live is one of the
best ways to establish God’s peace in the world, when we are an instrument of
our own death-to-self, so that another may live in God’s peace. But, ultimately,
being that instrument of God’s peace will help allow us pass through our
physical death to the eternal life, joy and peace of the fullness of the
Kingdom of God.
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Enjoy the journey . . .
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