Tonight as I watched the news in horror,  the news started to drown out as a memory kind of kindled in my mind. It was literally like I was hearing background music from my past and was transported back to being in the Wednesday night youth choir with memories of me trying to hit some  sharp notes of a song that was  very difficult to learn.  The notes were difficult, but boy, the words stuck then and are ringing in my ears now. ..  The prayer of St. Francis of Assisi.

I was thankful for the memory of the song sung so many times in choir practice. It wasn’t easy to learn then, and though I know the words, the principles are not easy. At all.  Not with blatant injustices and wrongs done. But I need these words. So much just doesn’t make sense and is not okay. But I need these words. Praying they’ll be the background music to my days.  We all have voices, instruments if you will… we may not hit the notes perfectly, but am thinking this song needs to be sung.

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.
Amen.

St. Francis of Assisi

Remembering the 11 lost in the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburg on October 27th.