Thoughts and Prayers of St Francis

Prayer of St Francis of Assisi

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.

Thoughts of St Francis

It is not fitting, when one is in God's service, to have a gloomy face or a chilling look.

​

I have been all things unholy.

If God can work through me, he can work through anyone.

​

​

Above all the grace and the gifts

that Christ gives to his beloved

is that of overcoming self.

​

​

No one is to be called an enemy,

all are your benefactors, and no one does you harm.

You have no enemy except yourselves.

​

​

While you are proclaiming peace with your lips, be careful to have it even more fully in your heart.

​

​

Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words.

​

​

If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures

from the shelter of compassion and pity,

you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men.