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The Prayer Attributed to St. Francis of Assisi

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Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me bring love. Where there is offence, let me bring pardon. Where there is discord, let me bring union. Where there is error, let me bring truth. Where there is doubt, let me bring faith. Where there is despair, let me bring hope. Where there is darkness, let me bring your light. Where there is sadness, let me bring joy.


O Lord, 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 one receives, it is in self-forgetting that one finds, it is in forgiving that one is forgiven, it is in dying that one awakens to eternal life.

Amen.

Moving Forward Meditations

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Moving Forward - 21 February 2025

    FRIDAY, February 21


    Isaiah 65:23 They shall not labor in vain, or bear children for calamity; for they shall be offspring blessed by the Lord—and their descendants as well. 


    As a person of color, when I think of the history of my people in the land of my birth, these words are not only poetry or scripture. They are my very real hope and prayer. When my husband is pulled over, even though he is going under the speed limit, his tags are current, and the car is in working order, I wish for this new earth about which the prophet dreams. The same applies when I think of the active shooter drills that my own child and the children in my parish go through to prepare for potential attacks at school. It happens when I watch the news and see images of genocide, wars, and famine.


    How long, O Lord, before those without homes can build and inhabit them? How long before the working poor can plant vineyards and eat their fruit? How long before the wolf and the lamb can feed together? We are more than ready for the time when they shall not hurt or destroy all on your holy mountain. Give us your strength, O God, as we wait and work with you.


    MOVING FORWARD: What kind of world do you dream of?



    (Source: Forward Day By Day Movement)

     
     
     

    Moving Forward - 20 February 2025

      THURSDAY, February 20, Frederick Douglass


      1 Timothy 4:12a Let no one despise your youth.


      As an older priest, I’ve had the joy of watching many of my young ones in the church grow up. Some have become clergy themselves. Some have gotten married and had babies whom I get to baptize. Some have done all of the above!

      These and other young people keep coming back to the church for the sacraments and holy community, and occasionally, in times of great sorrow, they return to mourn a friend lost to death.


      When I keep my eyes on the truth of cultural studies and surveys, the ones that speak of the demographic cliff of a population dip and the shrinking of church institutions, I find it easy to fall into the trap of the generational wars: “This is what’s wrong with young people today...” I don’t believe anything is “wrong” with young people today that wasn’t “wrong” with our generation when we were younger. Living in new ways in a changed world happens with each generation, and God is there—with the young ones and the elders—for all of it.


      MOVING FORWARD: O Lord, in the rush for the church to meet the challenge of the future, let me not dismiss the future that is already here.



      (Source: Forward Day By Day Movement)

       
       
       

      Moving Forward - 19 February 2025

        WEDNESDAY, February 19, Ying, Zhao, and Zhenmei


        Psalm 109:12 Let his descendants be destroyed, and his name be blotted out in the next generation.


        As unholy as I may sound, there’s almost nothing I love better than a good cursing psalm, and this one is my favorite. The combination of pettiness and venom married to prayer is so incredibly delicious that I feast on it time after time. On a good day, I see it as an extreme, almost slapstick adaptation of what I wish would happen to “meanies.” And on a bad day, when individuals or institutions choose evil that results in abuse, murder, and genocide, these words are affirmation that God understands human responses.


        This psalm is an invitation to bring the deepest level of honesty and reality into God’s presence as an emotional release and spiritual cleansing. Pain and righteous anger get the blessing of divine witness, and my spirit gets readied for the work of loving those who hurt me and others. What freedom to not have to “fake it until we make it” in the work of loving enemies. God is present with us and allows us to be fully present in our emotional lives so that we can act in love, whether we’re feeling love or not.


        MOVING FORWARD: Read a cursing psalm aloud. How does it make you feel?



        (Source: Forward Day By Day Movement)

         
         
         
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