The child is our King there is a new beginning a time to rejoice for living and believing for trusting loving and joy a time for giving forgiving and forgetting to give and receive a time of love and of peace hating and fighting to cease
Send forth your light and your truth, Let them guide me; Let them bring me to your holy mountain To the place where you dwell. Then will I go to the altar of God, To God, my joy and my delight. I will praise you with the harp, O God, my God.
May He support you all the day long, till the shades lengthen, and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over, and your work is done. There in His mercy
may He give you a safe lodging, and a holy rest and peace at the last.
Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life Of who shall I be afraid? Though an army besiege me, My heart will not fear; Though war break out against me, Even then will I be confident. Hear my voice when I call, O Lord; Be merciful to me and answer me. My heart says of you, “Seek his face!” Your face, Lord, I will seek. Wait for the Lord; Be strong and take heart And wait for the Lord.
What is the peace which Francis received, experienced and lived,
and which he passes on to us?
It is the peace of Christ, which is born of the greatest love of all, the love of the cross.
It is the peace which the Risen Jesus gave to his disciples:
“Peace be with you!”
The peace of Saint Francis is the peace of Christ, and it is found by those who“take up”their “yoke”namely, Christ’s commandment:
"Love one another as I have loved you!"
This yoke cannot be borne with arrogance, presumption or pride, but only with meekness and humbleness of heart. We turn to you, Francis, and we ask you: Teach us to be “instruments of peace”, of that peace which has its source in God, the peace which Jesus has brought us.
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.
Amen
"Francis,
repair my church, which you see is falling down"