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.
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 to eternal life.
Francis of Assisi (1181-1226)