The prayer of the day is often called the Prayer of St. Francis, though it was written anonymously around 1912. Pray it when you feel pulled toward argument instead of understanding, or when you want to receive comfort more than you want to offer it.
Lord, make me an instrument of thy 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; and 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.
Anonymous, c. 1912
How this prayer works
This prayer reverses the human instinct to protect ourselves first. It asks God to turn us into instruments, tools that serve His peace instead of our own comfort. Each line names a pair of opposites: hatred and love, injury and pardon, despair and hope. The pray-er is not asking to escape the dark places but to carry light into them.
The prayer first appeared in a French spiritual magazine in 1912, decades after St. Francis of Assisi died in 1226. It was attributed to Francis later because its spirit echoes his radical poverty and service. Francis rebuilt churches with his hands and preached peace to warring Italian towns; this prayer asks for the same self-emptying love.
Pray it before a conversation you are dreading, or when you notice yourself keeping score of who has been kinder. The second half of the prayer is the harder half: not to be consoled but to console, not to be understood but to understand. That is the work of an instrument, not a claimant.
Carry it through this morning.
