A shift in the way I view life began several weeks earlier, when a sage made a suggestion that relieved a large portion of the struggle within my mind. I had formed a rather harsh Inner Critic from the personalities of my parents, a large number of aunts and uncles, and all my grade school teachers, a critic that kept me looking for the faults and flaws in everything I did. Like many from a Protestant Midwestern background, I strained to see the forest that the trees made up, even after I had mapped it and lived in it. My wise friend noticed that I often referred to the Saint Francis prayer as a guideline, and recommended that I repeat it whenever the Critic got harsh with me. At 62 I was ready to leave all that scolding behind, so I tried it, It worked. By showing me how petty was the Critic, and how important the inner peace I had already discovered within myself through my religion, the prayer kept me "centered" at times when life's normal bumps and blows were trying to throw me off balance
Quote:
The St Francis Prayer (Book of Common Prayer version)
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.
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