The fields of France during World War I were so devastated with shell fire and violence that in places like Verdun where the fighting was fiercest even after 100 years the land cannot be farmed. There are unexploded shells and even grizzlier reminders of the hell on earth created by that conflict. The land will never be the same.

In the midst of that conflict that darkened that lives of a whole world a simple prayer most likely written by a French priest by the name of Bouquerel and published on a prayer card along with a picture of St. Francis of Assisi. Today we know that prayer simply as the prayer of Saint Francis.

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.

This simple prayer truly reflects the spirit that moved Francis of Assisi, a person who was so concerned with others that his family took him to court to stop him from giving everything he had away to the poor. He spent his life bringing light into the darkness, sowing love where there was hate, giving freely of himself even when others might think that there is nothing left to give.

The kind of truth that Jesus taught, that Francis followed, that Father Bouquerel wrote about in the prayer of Saint Francis is often discovered in the darkness of conflict because it is only when the darkness surrounds us, as it did Father Bouquerel, that we are able to see how precious the light is, so precious, that like Jesus we become willing to serve it with our lives.

Often it is easier to avoid difficulties than it is to face them, to look at a conflict without looking at ourselves. The wisdom of this prayer is that it does not seek to avoid the kind of self examination necessary if we truly wish to be an instrument of God’s peace. It is the paradox that we all must embrace if we truly wish to follow Jesus. It is the paradox he referred to when he said;
"If any wants to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it. What does it profit them if they gain the whole world, but lose or forfeit themselves? (Luke 9:23-25)

The first way we are called to lose our lives in the service of Jesus is the way of Saint Francis, seeking to serve others before we serve ourselves.

Pastor Jim Bliss
June 2007