Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi
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.
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 born to eternal life.
(from a prayer card, printed in Italy)
The Everyday Prayer
Every day, O Lord God, men and women,
who are your children and our brothers and sisters,
seek a final solution to their immediate problems
in the killing of an unborn child.
This temptation is especially strong today when the law in many lands no longer protects innocent human life.
Grant us, O Lord, a new appreciation of its sanctity.
We pray that you will send today
to the person you know is most in need of it
the grace to reject this unloving expedient.
Send to that person, whose name is known only to you,
the courage to persevere so that the child already living, whom you have loved from all eternity, will be born safely to grow in knowledge, in love and in service of you.
Help us too, dear Lord, so to know love and serve you that we will never fail those who need us.
Show us how to make our society
one in which no child is unwanted,
no adult feels abandoned, and the pressures which lead to abortion no longer exist.
For these intentions, Lord,
and in union with your sacrifice on the cross, we offer to you the trials and anxieties which may come to us today.
Grant, Lord Jesus, that those who acknowledge the sanctity of life will be inspired by you to lead a life of sanctity.
Amen.