It Is Trish

I’m a bit obsessed with St. Francis of Assisi, and it all started with Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  That’s normal, right?

In the season six finale (which is SO GREAT and I will definitely write about at some point), Sarah McLachlan sings, “The Prayer of St. Francis.”  I thought it was beautiful, and I eventually realized it originated, not with a show about vampire slayers, but with a 13th century monk. 

It is, I think, a perfect prayer.  It’s right after the Lord’s Prayer for me, and it exresses everything I long to be.

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;
it is in dying that we are born again to eternal life.