Make Me a Channel of Your Peace
During St. Stephen’s recent worship series, we’ve explored the concept of “ONEness.” (View ONEness messages.) What does it mean to be of one or to be in unity with one another — as a church, as a community, with our neighbors? The Gospel of John tells us that our savior prayed for his disciples, asking God to protect them “so that they may be one.” In our series, we explored unity in the church, reminded of Paul’s advice to the Corinthians “be knit together in the same mind and the same purpose” and his word to the Romans to live in harmony. Though oneness does not mean sameness, we are called to live together in common pursuit of the Gospel. We do this, Christ tells us, by living in love.
Yet, many times, we carry our own wounds — spiritual, emotional, or otherwise — that keep us from fully realizing our ability to live and love as Christ taught us. In prayer, we can channel God’s strength to give our hurts and pains away, removing the spiritual barriers within that prevent us from loving one another and creating oneness in the church and the world.
Think of a hurt, a wound, or some other barrier that is keeping you from this promise. Pray over it, using St. Francis of Assisi’s Prayer for Peace as a meditation. As a resource to our online, traveling, far-away, or homebound guests and members, take as a token of this reflection one of four smartphone wallpapers. Make it your phone’s default, and a daily visual reminder of your reflection today.
St. Francis of Assisi’s Prayer for Peace
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.
Phone Wallpapers
For most phones, press and hold on an image to open options to save.
(Wallpaper Instructions – Google Pixel/Stock Android)
(Wallpaper Instructions – Apple)
