PRAYER

Saint Francis of Assissi’s prayer summarises a religious person’s function in society:

“Lord make me an instrument of Thy peace;
That where there is hatred, I may bring love;
That where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness;
That where there is error, I may bring truth;
That where there is doubt, I may bring faith;
That where there is despair, I may bring hope;
And where there are shadows, I may bring Thy light;
That where is sadness, I may bring joy;
Lord grant that I may seek rather to comfort that to be comforted;
To understand than to be understood;
To love than to be loved;
For it is by giving that one receiveth;
It is by self-forgetting that one finds;
It is by forgiving that one is forgiven;
It is by dying that one awakens to eternal life.”