A Legacy of Humility

My impression of a humble man is St. Francis of Assisi.  He lived from 1181-1226 and was the patron saint of animals, ecologists, and merchants.  He was also the founder of the Franciscan Order.  St. Francis  wanted nothing else in life than to be accepted, and rebuild the church.  He turned his back on inherited wealth and committed his life to God.  Like many early saints, he lived a very simple life of poverty and in doing so gained a reputation for being a friend to animals.  His story is sad, however, as he spent a life filled with suffering and humiliation.  Out of this wonderful, misunderstood man, came one of the best loved and recited prayers:  "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; and where there is sadness, joy.  Oh 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. In the prayer, he tells us to pray to God to bring forth these good qualities within us in order to help others.  He further goes on to say, that we should not only pray to plant these things in others, but give up our needs to be comforted, understood, and loved.  St. Francis tells us that we will reap the rewards of receiving, being forgiven, and be given eternal life if we serve in this way.  The prayer, originally called the Peace Prayer, occurred in France in 1912 in a spiritual magazine.  It circulated through Europe and no one knew where it came from or who authored it.  When the prayer was translated into English in 1936, it appeared in Living Courageously, a book by Kirby Page, minister, pacifist, and writer.  He attributed the prayer to St. Francis of Assisi.  During World War II and after, this prayer for peace began circulating widely as the Prayer of St. Francis.