Francis of Assisi Prayer: Goodbye 2013

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.

Could this prayer, attributed to Francis of Assisi, form the basis for a New Year's resolution for 2014? Wouldn't that be something if the church gave more than just cheap verbal assent to this and actually put it into practice? Selah (pause, and calmly think of that)!

Happy New Year.