Prayer of St. Francis

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
 

A Life In Your Hands...
by Dorothy Law Holte

If a child lives with criticism, he learns to condemn;
If a child lives with hostility, he learns to fight;
If a child lives with ridicule, he learns to be shy;
If a child lives with shame, he learns to feel guilty;
If a child lives with tolerance, he learns to be patient;
If a child lives with encouragement, he learns confidence;
If a child lives with praise, he learns to appreciate;
If a child lives with fairness, he learns justice;
If a child lives with security, he learns to have faith;
If a child lives with approval, he learns to like himself;
If a child lives with acceptance and friendship, he learns to find love in the world.
 

PRAYER is like the parable of the "MUSTARD SEED"
 "It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and tossed into the garden;
it grew, and manifest a great tree; and the birds lodged in its branches."
Luke 13:18-20

Think of prayer as a seed.
Make a prayer as if planting a seed in rich soil hidden from sight yet still living.
The seed needs to be watered occasionally even though it cannot been seen -
as does your prayer need your sustenance.

Sustenance may come in the form of repetition, intention or
sending the prayer positive thought to support it as it matures into reality.

In time, the seed you have planted through prayer will begin to
break the surface of the earth. Just a little at first,
giving you a glimmer of hope, and then more and more as
it continues to take its place in the physical world.

During the growth cycle of prayer do not grow impatient,
prayer seeds manifest and arrive in their own perfect time.

If you love those little hidden seeds through all phases of their development
they will indeed rise to the life they were born to know.
Just as your prayers, too, come to life.

 COPYRIGHT © Martha Tierney 2000