by Saint Francis of Assisi
Lord, make me an instrument of Thy
peace;
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is error, the truth;
Where there is doubt, the 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. Amen.
Mother Teresa quoted
this prayer when she received the Nobel Peace Prize. She said that this is used each day in their
tradition after receiving communion.
Obviously this was her heart and over rode everything she did.
What we might not
know is that Mother Teresa had a struggle going on inside of her heart and
spirit much of the time. There were many
things in her past, her family and in her community that brought much pain to
her inner struggle. Yet her calling kept
her close to the poor of Calcutta, India.
We also need to recognize that Mother Teresa’s passion and example led
to thousands of women becoming nuns and serving the poor as she did.
Take that a step
forward, and like me, realize that many people who serve others attribute some
of their passion to the example of Mother Teresa of Calcutta. I am touched by her story, by her selflessly
giving of herself to serve others and her choice to choose simplicity so that
she could make a bigger difference in the lives of the people, really the poor
and hurting, who fill the community in which she lived.
For many years I
have known that my calling in live is to call people to use their God given
potential and to give a voice to those who cannot speak up for themselves. It hurts me greatly to see people hurt.
Yesterday I was
introduced to a homeless man. His story
grabbed my heart on so many levels. Some
people fall through the cracks of life.
Then some people when they hit bottom make horrible choices. This man’s
choices caught up with him, but his heart continues to tell him to look up and
to trust God.
In the last few
weeks I have been doing more soul searching about the place our church is at
and where our family is. Finding out
that the inner struggle Mother Teresa went through and remembering what the
Apostle Paul said about his struggle. It
is painful. It is eye opening.
The further I go the
more I want what God wants and less of my old self showing up. People will be touched by God when we think
less about what we want and more about what God wants. Look at people the way God looks at
them.
Jesus often was seen
“moved with compassion” because of what He saw in people. He saw and felt their pain. He understood the hurt that life brings our
way. May we be found loving people like
Jesus loves and giving the way Jesus gave.
Re read the prayer
above. I pray that my life will give
hope, or as another preacher said, “may we be brokers of hope”. Further, I pray that our lives will help
peace grow around us and in our communities as we share the love of God through
acts of random kindness.
Don’t just pretend to love others.
Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good.
“And the King will say, ‘I tell you the
truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters,
you were doing it to me!’
No comments:
Post a Comment