Prayer of Saint Francis

If I could run to a gift shop to buy something for Chrysanthemum as she recuperates in her hospital bed, I would like to pick up a little scroll with this prayer on it:

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.

13th century.


These words have been ringing truly in Christian ears. As the two of us often chatted long after our hard day's work in the teacher's training college, we would remind each other that we were not working in vain. that our Heavenly Father is looking down from Heaven at our work.

No matter how tired we were physically, such as prayer of St. Francis would revive us and we would feel that we have been comforted in the bosom of Abraham, in the bosom of God.

So may Chrysanthemum be in the bosom of God and feel His comforting arms. I can imagine her now with all the tubes coming out of her like an alien from outer space,with monitors all around her, and life support at her side.