Leanne Shawler, Artist

Today is St. Francis' feast day. I thought it would be a good opportunity for a quickie post and link to the collection of blog posts that myself and a bunch of other good people wrote about the Prayer of St. Francis. Here. Enjoy.

For your viewing pleasure (in case you may have missed one): here are all the posts on the Prayer of St. Francis. Once again my deepest thanks to all who participated. Lord, make us instruments of your peace.  Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that we 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.

When I started to write this post, I went straight to my head. There was catechism and scripture quoting and all sorts of things. After it was written and as I fell asleep, I found myself thinking: where am I in this post?   Are these not meant to be meditations on our experience with this? Why did I go directly to the intellectual, safe, place?  What am I not doing that's made me put on my lecture pants? (I imagine them to be an orange plaid.)    Lecture-girl is usually guilt-driven (why yes, I have read   emily freeman 's   "grace for the good girl"   and I am doing the   read-along too ). What is it in "and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life" that scares me? Am I really dying to self? Am I really stepping aside and letting God lead me, guide me? When it comes to God versus the couch and potato chips, not so much. Before we get to the possible answers to these questions, let's segue and talk a bit about "eternal...

We continue the series on the Prayer of St. Francis. Our guest today is Mary. She is a thirty something Catholic woman who enjoys gardening, swimming, and verbal sparring. She lives in a nondescript small town with her husband and two elderly cats. You can find her blog at  St. Henry .  Several years ago, one of my friends was killed by a drunk driver.  To protect his family's privacy, I'll call him Jacob, but that's not his real name.  Jacob had done some dumb things when he was young, but he turned his life around in a major way, had a family he adored, and was committed to being the best man he could be.  And just as it seemed that everything had come together for him, it was all over.  "Unfair" doesn't begin to describe it. Those of you who've lost someone suddenly know the hurricane of emotion that swirls around you during those first few days.  Shock. Pain. Sadness over what that person was and the dreams they never fulfilled.  An...

Today's guest blogger in this series on the Prayer of St. Francis is Helena Chan. Helena doesn't have a blog. Together, we went through EfM (Education for Ministry) for three of the four years and we now chant Lauds at the Cathedral once a month. Rummaging through my closet, I recover a sizable 11 x 14 calligraphic incarnation of this prayer attributed to Saint Francis,  delivered by the hands of a Benedictine monk. Brother Roy’s black and blue ink flow from the outer edge of the page in concentric circles,  toward the center – LORD – embossed and imprinted in the paper,  anchoring the prayer as I touch, see, and sense. Momentarily, my mind flits to another place, distracted from Brother Roy and the calligraphy before me.  I pull “St. Benedict’s Prayer Book” off my shelf, wondering whether these Benedictines have this prayer in their collection.  They do, and here it is: Lord, make me an instrument of your peace; where there is hatred...

Hi all, This week's Prayer of St. Francis post will be delayed until some time on Saturday or maybe not til Tuesday.  My guest this week got called away on a business trip before finishing up her post and between her weekend and mine, getting it online will be a bit tricky. Thanks for your patience :) Hmm, St. Francis doesn't pray for patience, does he? No wonder he's my kinda guy. I'm too impatient to pray for patience too! Why do you think there's no prayer for patience in this prayer? Is it buried in one of the lines? Leave your thoughts in a comment! (To catch up and read earlier posts in the Prayer of St. Francis series, click  here .)

This is the same St. Francis as in the other posts, this is how small the statue is! Today's post is from my husband, Dan. Does he need any more introduction than that? O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek … to be loved, as to love. The prayer has it right on the surface.  It is in loving that we are loved by others.  If we never extend our love to others we will probably not receive love from others.  But reality is deeper and has many more layers than that. The two great commandments are “you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37) and “you must love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:38). I actually see three commands here.  Love God.  Love your neighbor.  Love yourself. Perhaps the most difficult of the three, and in a way the most important, is the last; love yourself.  If you can’t love yourself, you won’t be able to enter a loving relationshi...

Today's post comes from Patty Stewart. Here's her bio in her own words: " I am blessed to be part of the Newman Center, Catholic Community at UCSD staff; I have been part of the staff since November 2004. Time flies when you’re having fun! It seems like I stopped in for daily Mass at 12:10 just “yesterday”. I continue to manage day to day operations, serve as Advisor for the Faith Formation committee, direct the Christian Initiation process with a community team, and share leadership with other staff on the Building Tomorrow endeavors, Pastoral Council and the Liturgy committee. Occasionally I have to stop and see what “hat” I am wearing at any given moment. My life experiences happily include 38 years of marriage (whoo hoo!), 3 remarkable adult children, and 3 delightful grandsons. For 30+ years I have worked in 6 parishes or Catholic schools in Faith Formation and liturgical ministries up and down the Pacific Coast (from Seattle to San Diego). My formal education...

And with this line, we enter the second half of St. Francis' prayer. "Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console..." There is a certain abandonment of self in this, but not total abandonment. When my father-in-law died, any sorrow I had needed to be put aside so that I could be a comfort and a support to my husband and his family. I had done much the same a few years prior when his grandfather had died. That had been easier because I'd only visited him once before. But my father-in-law I'd gotten to know and care for, especially through his last long illness.  So grief was kept at bay until late one night, in bed, in the dark, I cried. There was probably no reason to hold it in for all the time I did but I didn't want my grief to take precedence over my husband's. Of course I wasn't alone in that night and my husband comforted me, consoled me, as I had consoled him leading up to that moment. It is im...

When I first sat down to write this, I thought: "I got nuthin'." Then I thought maybe I could show that clip from the Mary Tyler Moore Show about Mary laughing through Chuckle the Clown's funeral service. (I shared that here instead.) And then, as part of my preparation of checking in with my spiritual director a couple of weeks ago, I discovered I'd written about "where there is sadness, joy" months ago. Sadness happens with loss: of a person, of a dream, a world drastically changed, for example. I keep forgetting: that in the horror of the holocaust, the victims loved and praised God that, as Jennifer at "Getting Down with Jesus" describes in her trip to Haiti, God is with the broken-hearted. They rejoice to live. They have upheld their faith, or rediscovered it anew amongst loss and disaster -- and living with that day in and day out. that communities come together, offer endless cups of tea and help with donations and willin...

Today's guest blogger is Joe Pote. As a s tudent of the Bible since early childhood, Joe was literally raised in church, attending multiple church services and Bible studies each week. Having also endured the devastation of a failed marriage, Joe combines a sound understanding of biblical principles with personal experience of the issues and concerns of believers who have experienced divorce.  He would like for you to visit his website .  I sat huddled at my desk, face pressed into palms supported by elbows propped on desktop, staring into the darkness of my own hands…feeling the darkness pressing in from all sides.   The work day was ended.  It was time to go home, a brief ten minute walk from the office.  Yet, I lingered, dreading home…knowing the unfixable problems waiting there…praying that God would show me what to do. My four beautiful children waited at home, bright lights in my life, who I was always pleased to see.  But their mother also ...

Today's guest post in my Prayer of St. Francis series is my Mum! After reading her story below, I think you'll agree she doesn't need any more of an introduction... Once a week I volunteer at the Court House. I start out helping to serve tea and coffee and then go one on one in the Salvation Army’s Positive Lifestyle Program. The foyer of the Court House is a good place to watch the agony, despair and sometimes joy and relief of the people brought together in this place. You get to hear their stories as they stand waiting, cuppa in hand. The despair of the young girl who had been raped and didn’t feel she could go into court to testify. The tears of her mother were heart breaking. The mother just wanting to take her daughter home: the daughter had lost her baby the night before in the cells, been taken to hospital but was back in the cells awaiting sentencing. And the young man the same age as my youngest son, afraid that he would go back inside, angry with everyone especi...

Today's guest blogger for my series on the Prayer of St. Francis is Sarah Kidd. Sarah is currently finishing her second year absorbing the language and culture of South Asia. When not sipping chai and chatting with the neighbors, she's sipping chai and reading good books and blogs. She writes about her adventures at Whispers on the Journey ( www.sarah-kidd.com ). *** “I’m leaving,” she said. We were best friends one semester away from graduating Bible college. Her doubts made her feel a hypocrite in classes about theology and Bible. I would graduate without her. We had cried together. We had talked God’s goodness and the problem of evil until our brains turned to mush and our voices hoarse. I had spent long, sleepless nights tossing, turning, praying. I had wished desperately that somehow I could believe enough for the both of us. She began dating a guy who hated Christians. Mocked them relentlessly. I read his scathing, angry blog. I tried to understand where she was going. I...

Today's guest post in the Prayer of St. Francis series is by Lory Garrett. Our paths crossed a few years back and we walked in faith together for a few years before she moved (she taught me how to make psanky eggs amongst other things.) “Don’t be such a troublemaker, Lory!”  “Can’t you ever just get along, Lory?”  These are the words I grew up with.  Even my 7th  grade English teacher’s favorite phase to me was “Don’t be so dogmatic!”  I didn’t even know what that meant (except it couldn’t be good) until I looked it up. Now, in my 65th  year, I often still find myself the lightning bolt or the lightning rod.  I don’t mean to be.  I don’t mean to be a troublemaker.  I do want to get along.  I don’t mean to be so intense when I express something important to me.   Leanne’s flattering request to guest on her blog hit just at the right time.  True enough, I’m not a fan of St. Francis’ Peace Prayer.  It overwhelms me with my f...