This article is part of a larger series on The Peace Prayer of St. Francis. You can read other entries here:
- An Instrument of Peace
- Where There is Doubt, Let Me Sow Faith
- Where There is Darkness, Let Me Sow Light
Peace Prayer of Saint Francis
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
I love spending time with the Peace Prayer of St. Francis. In its words I find the kind of person I long to be, but often struggle to be. As I say each line I am reminded of the beautiful things that God wants to do through me each day. Not with my own willpower but by his grace. This prayer for me is an opening of my heart, a surrender, a step towards his will which is good and pleasing and perfect.
One morning as I repeated the beginning phrase to myself, “Where there is hatred let me sow love,” I saw a place that needed this work. I am not a hateful person but as I stood there in my bedroom I realized I was carrying hatred in my heart, and it was aimed at myself. Towards certain parts of my body that I see in the mirror and despise. There’s that part of my thighs that just won’t get toned no matter how many exercises I try. The way my underarms sag and remind me of raw chicken. The way my belly button flops lifelessly right above the purple stretch marks my second pregnancy gave me.
Even though I may not be saying these negative words out loud, or have been consciously aware they were there every time I looked in the mirror, the hate was raging strong.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
If I wasn’t willing to sow love into this part of my life, I wasn’t really letting this prayer take complete hold of me. I wasn’t letting God take complete hold of me. This is now a holy calling. To be able to stand in front of the mirror, with these flaws staring back at me, and not spew hate. Maybe even finding the strength to say, “Body, I see you — ALL of you — and you are beautiful.”
For this I need God’s help. His grace, his love, his acceptance.
I came across a Martin Luther King Jr. quote this week that spoke to this. He said, “I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.”
In the seconds after reading it, I felt a wave of lightness come over me. Hating my body is a burden. It forces me to constantly strive and work hard to attain something I will never attain — a body free of flaws. There are some things about my body I will never be able to change. So why not just stick with love?
God is challenging me, to look at those parts of myself that are the weakest, most insecure, most ‘unlovable’, and to see them through his eyes. To gather all of that love and kindness and compassion and sow it in those places I have hated for too long.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
This is a holy calling, and God, our gracious Father, will have it no other way.
For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mothers womb.
I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well. – Psalm 139: 13-14
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