Morning Prayer of St. Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace. "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called children of God." — Matthew 5:9 WHERE THERE IS HATRED, LET ME SOW LOVE: Lord, I will encounter difficult people today. People who are rude, ungrateful, or hostile. In those moments, give me the supernatural ability to respond with love. Not sentimental love, but strong, chosen, Christ-like love that refuses to repay evil with evil. WHERE THERE IS INJURY, PARDON: Someone may wound me today — with words, with actions, with indifference. Lord, give me the grace to forgive quickly. Not because the offense is small, but because holding onto it will cost me more than releasing it. WHERE THERE IS DOUBT, FAITH: If I encounter someone struggling with doubt today — about God, about themselves, about the future — let me be a voice of faith. Not preachy or dismissive, but genuine. A living testimony that trust in God is not naive but brave. WHERE THERE IS DESPAIR, HOPE: Lord, someone I know is losing hope. They may not show it, but they are. Give me eyes to see them. Give me words that carry the weight of real hope — not platitudes, but the hope that comes from knowing the God who raises the dead. WHERE THERE IS DARKNESS, LIGHT: Let me carry Your light into every dark room I enter today. Not with arrogance but with warmth. Not with judgment but with compassion. WHERE THERE IS SADNESS, JOY: Lord, let my joy be contagious today — not a fake cheerfulness that denies reality, but a deep, grounded joy that comes from knowing I am loved by God and nothing can change that. 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.