Microsoft Clip artI know that we’ve posted this one before, but as I was contemplating writing a prayer for peace, one line came into my mind again and again.  “Where there is darkness, light.”   What better way to celebrate the star of Christmas than with the Prayer of St. Francis?

The Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi

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.

Amen.