The Prayer of St. Francis

Original:

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy 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.

Godless Variant

Make me an instrument of 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.

May I 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 loving that we are loved.

(Yes, that last line should be "and it is in dying that we are dead." Although that may be factual, it's not exactly uplifting.)

Comments/Personal Take:

Although there's nothing wrong with the original version of this prayer, and certainly it would have made sense to St. Francis to pray to a dominant God, I really like the godless version better. I don't think there's anything in there bad to ask (the Universe, one's self) for. Except possibly "Where there is doubt, faith." There's nothing wrong with doubt, after all; doubt leads to asking questions, which in turn leads to deeper answers. Faith has its place, I think, but I don't think its place is in the removal of doubt.

I also prefer the godless version because it gets rid of master/vassal language. I think another interesting way to modify this prayer might be to remove "Oh Lord" and change "Divine Master" to "Divine servant." If we're going to keep god in the prayer, this change also changes the relationship between the speaker and god.

How I use it (if I do)

I don't. For one thing, I don't have the patience to memorize this prayer, and I always feel a bit odd reading prayer out of a text while in sacred space.