Devotional Thoughts Based on the Glory to God Hymnal

Matthew 5:9

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God.

Years ago, I committed to memory the Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi. Though I have read this prayer attributed to him; its authorship is not of concern to me. It is a beautiful prayer. *

O 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 are born to eternal life.

If we sow love, pardon, faith, hope, light, and joy in places where there is the opposite, then we will indeed be peacemakers. We will also be children of God as we reconcile those who are estranged from God and from others. God desires for all His children to live together in peace and harmony, for that is the nature of life in God’s Kingdom.

*The Glory to God commentator notes: “. the earliest known printing was in a French religious magazine in 1912.

Prayer

O God, to be peacemakers is a high calling. Remind us that God does not call us to any tasks without equipping us to fulfill them. In Christ’s name, we pray. Amen