Prayer of a Divine Instrument

There are prayers that comfort us, and there are prayers that reshape us.

The Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi has lived for generations as a simple, luminous map for the Soul. It does not beg God for a private rescue. It offers the self to God as a Sacred Instrument of Peace. It is devotional, practical, and quietly fierce. It brings Spiritual maturity into ordinary moments, where the Real work of Love happens.

Here is the prayer, as I received it again today, not as a recitation, but as a living invitation.

Lord, make me an Instrument of Thy 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,

It is in dying that we are born into

Eternal Life.

Hands cupped, receptively, in prayer

When I sit with this prayer, I feel its quiet genius. It is not trying to decorate our Spiritual life with pretty words. It is giving us a training ground. It is showing us how to partner with God in the movement of Creation, right where we are.

“Make me an Instrument of Thy Peace.” (The Prayer of a Divine Instrument!)

This line is both tender and bold. It says, God, use me. Shape me. Tune me. It implies that Peace is not merely a mood we hope to feel, it is a Frequency that can move through a willing Vessel. And the word Instrument matters. Instruments are not the composer. Instruments do not strain to be impressive. They are available, aligned, and responsive.

There is something playful here, too, if we let it be. Instruments do not argue with the song. They practice. They listen. They begin again.

“Where there is hatred, let me sow Love.”

Sow is an agricultural word. It is patient. It is earthy. It is not frantic. It does not demand instant outcomes. Sowing Love suggests we carry seeds, and we place them deliberately. Sometimes the soil is hard. Sometimes the climate is strange. Sometimes nothing looks like it is happening at all.

Yet Creation is Intentional. God is Purposeful. Love is not wasted.

“Where there is injury, pardon.”

This is not a call to deny pain. It is a call to let God lead our response to pain. Pardon here feels like a Holy release. A loosening of the fist around the story. A decision to stop feeding the wound with our attention. A willingness to let the heart breathe again.

Sometimes pardon begins as a prayer we can barely whisper. Sometimes it begins as a boundary. Sometimes it begins as the Sacred Pause before we speak. All of it counts.

“Where there is doubt, faith.”

Faith, in its truest form, is not intellectual certainty. It is inner consent to the Presence of God. It is the willingness to lean into the unseen Good that is already active, even when the mind is dramatic, even when the evidence seems slow.

If doubt visits you, you are not disqualified. Doubt can become a doorway into deeper listening. Faith does not punish the human. Faith befriends the human and points it toward God.

“Where there is despair, hope.”

Hope is a Divine art. It is not forced positivity. It is a Spiritual posture that says, Something Real is still possible here. Something Holy is still unfolding. God has not mislaid Creation.

Hope can be quiet. Hope can be a single breath. Hope can be the choice to stand up and wash one dish. Hope can be calling a friend. Hope can be praying even when the heart feels tired. Hope is often humble.

“Where there is darkness, Light.”

I love how direct this is. Light is not a debate, it is a Presence. Light is what reveals what is True, and also warms what has grown cold. Light does not humiliate what it touches. Light simply illumines.

Sometimes the most intelligent prayer is: I am grateful God is, that I may be, what is True.

“Where there is sadness, joy.”

Joy here does not read as denial. It reads as Spiritual alchemy. Joy is a Divine capacity that can arise alongside sadness, not by erasing it, but by widening the heart. Joy is the Soul remembering its Source.

Joy can be gentle. Joy can be strangely quiet. Joy can look like gratitude. Joy can look like a ridiculous little laugh that escapes at the exact right moment. Yes, I have found, the Divine tends to wink, and even, to giggle.

“Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console.”

This line changes the orientation of the self. It does not shame our longing to be held. It simply invites us into a more spacious posture, where Love moves outward through us. There is a maturity here that feels like True Spiritual power.

“To be understood, as to understand. To be loved, as to Love.”

This is where the prayer becomes a mirror.

So much suffering comes from the hunger to be seen, to be gotten, to be chosen. Those desires are human, and they are not wrong. Yet this prayer teaches a secret of Sacred living. When I become the one who understands, Love starts flowing. When I become the one who Loves, Love becomes present.

And in a way that only God could design, the heart that gives begins to receive.

“For it is in giving that we receive.”

This is not transactional. It is Spiritual law. It is circulation. It is the movement of Divine Life, moving through an open channel, blessing the giver and the world simultaneously.

“It is in pardoning that we are pardoned.”

Pardoning is often the place where we remember we, too, have needed Mercy. And when we touch Mercy, we touch God.

“It is in dying that we are born into Eternal Life.”

This line speaks to the Sacred dying of the small self. The release of our tight grip. The surrender of our insistence. The willingness to be made new.

Eternal Life, in this sense, is not merely a future destination. It is a present Reality that becomes more visible as we yield to God.

Colorful Light Waves

A short practice you can try with this prayer

Simply sit somewhere. Place one hand on your heart, one on your belly. Receive and circulate three slow breaths.

Then choose one line of the prayer that feels like it is choosing you.

Say it slowly, one time.

Say it again, as if God is saying it through you.

Say it a third time, as a vow you are willing to practice in small ways.

Now, let yourself name one tiny act that could embody that line today.

Sow Love could mean sending a kind text.

Pardon could mean pausing before you rehearse the story again.

Faith could mean doing the next right thing without needing the whole plan.

Hope could mean standing in the Light for ten breaths.

Joy could mean letting yourself enjoy something simple without guilt.

This is how the prayer becomes lived.

Closing blessing

How sweet it is to be an Instrument of Divine Peace.God's Sacred Song expresses in, through, as All That Is. Love prevails in the One Mind, One Heart, One Life that creates and animates each and every aspect of Itself.Listening, receiving, yielding, as the embodiment of our Spiritual Nature expands gently, persistently, and profoundly.This is answered prayer in motion, released unto the Law that it may be fulfilled.

So be it. Amen.