Monday, December 04, 2006

If you are bold enough..




"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

-St Francis of Assisi

I love this small prayer. It acts as an internal compas helping me to direct my thoughts,relationships and actions..

St. Francis' prayer is a bold one, asking for strength to give of ourselves to meet the needs of others.


Of course I often find myself falling short .. But it sort of inspires me to try to do better..

He is one of the saints I adore cos of his beautiful thoughts, focus on peace , his love for animals, birds and the enviornment..

So if you're bold enough, pray the prayer.

:))

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/hardtruth/science_investagates_prayer.htm

check out this link. there is also an article on net called "Einstein on Prayer"

you could understand the concept better :)

Sachin R K said...

Beautiful prayer :)

quills said...

You know, I love this particular prayer a lot too. Like you said, simple, but sometimes the hardest to do, thinking of not our needs and our satisfaction, but how we can make others happy and satisfied and through it feel good ourselves. Beautiful prayer this is and one I say very often.

Anonymous said...

A good prayer...

Kaushik said...

Hm..I don't know.

When do you *really, truly* feel happier inside? When your best friend gets a promotion, or you get a promotion?

When you're 80 and look back at your life, what are the moments you remember?

- Your kids getting their first job, or your helping others' kids to get a job?

- Your donations to charity, or how the kid who benefited from the charity ended up?

- The names of the people you cured, or the names of the people others cured?

- The difference that you made, or the difference there is in the world?

Its all about YOU, you know. Giving is usually just a form of receiving. And there's nothing wrong with selfishness.

Just stating my two pence, no offence meant!

Alex said...

:)

Sujit said...

nice prayer :).!

Reshmi said...

I remember having learnt a prayer very similar to this in my school days. Starts like
"Make me a channel of your peace
Where therez despair in life let me bring hope..."

You really do put small touching posts on ur blog. I have been a frequent visitor, only that lazy to put comments most of the time.

Regards,
Reshmi

£ijo Isac said...

Prayers bring in lot of inner peace and serenity especially when we do it with family . Thanks for this nice and sweet prayer

Life said...

divine prayer.

yes prayer brings peace in life and also gives strength to do right things in ur life

Take Care
Vikas{V}

Jo said...

"Lord, make me an instrument of your peace"

That line itself is a wonderful prayer...

Jiby said...

we were taught this prayer in school...forgot all about it since then...felt nice to read it again. when i was small wanted to be a priest...reading francis of assissi's stories were a big inspiration.

silverine said...

This has been my favorite too since I was little. He is my favorite saint too cos he could talk to animals and birds :) But the beauty of those words are incomparable!!!

P said...

Beautiful prayer...

abhishek said...

You should point this out to Sam Harris, who was interviewed by Rediff. He is harsh on Christianity. But, I believe after reading your post, that he should have been harsher on how it is practiced. St. Francis of Asissi is a wondeful example of that non-violent philosophical leader that people reach out to in Kerala, but goes unrecognized in the U.S.

Anonymous said...

pretty cool..
i first herd disi prayer when i was of 16 an since then i love it..

monu said...

I have the malayalam version of this prayer... its realy good one :)

one day i will post it in my blog :)