Lord, Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace

Lord, Make Me An Instrument of Your Peace

I always like to look at statues and pictures of St. Francis of Assissi. He is usually holding a small animal in his arms and just his essence transmits the feeling of peace. I committed the prayer of St. Francis of Assissi very early in my life and it holds not only peace for me but also holds challenges.

The first line, "Lord, Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace" is such a telling first line. I think that if we "got" this first line, we wouldn't need any others! Let me dissect it.....

Lord......This to me tells of St. Francis' acknowledgement of a surpreme being in his life. And it is like he surrenders to that. That sets up the feeling of peace by the first word!

Make....Again, St. Francis is surrendering to this surpreme being by acnnoldeging the power this being has....Like, it would take a surpreme being to "make" us do something.

Instrument....Whether a guitar, a harp, a french horn, a pen, a notebook.....the instruement has a purpose. It is something useful. It is something that everyone can acknowledge and recognize. It is something of value. In St. Francis' prayer, he asks to a make me an instrument of peace. Let me be useful, let me have purpose, let me be played or used for the wonderment of peace. What an appropriate word he chose!

Thy....Acknowledging that God is the supreme being and it is His peace that St. Francis wants to propegate. Just using the word "thy" puts us in another realm, the realm of a place that is serene.

Peace....We have heard this word thousands of times but I wonder if we really have done much thinking about it. Is peace just the absence of war and troubles? Does peace mean no struggling, no fear, no heartbreak? I think not. I think peace includes all of the pain and suffering in the world and then rises above it, changing it from a negative thing to a positive thing. I used to belong to a group of women that included in opening ceremony...."Let us transmute the dust into stardust". I think this is an important part of peace.....transmujting or changing dust into stardust, sorrow into joy, pain into gladness. Whew if that is what St. Francis was thinking, he left us a big challenge.

How do we do that?