Creative Prayer: Instruments of Peace

Focus: Peace

Before You Begin:

No prep is required for this one!

The Prayer Time!

Read the following prayer attributed to St. Francis of Assisi aloud to your family:

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,

not so much to be understood as to understand,

not so much to be loved, as to love;

for it is in giving that we receive,

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

it is in dying, that we awake to eternal life.

After reading the prayer, discuss what it might mean to different family members. Then ask:

The person praying this prayer asks God to make him or her an instrument of God’s peace. What kind of “instrument” do you think the writer means?
How can you be an instrument like that?

Have each person think of a tool or instrument that could be used to show peace, or that might represent peace. For example, a hammer could be an instrument of peace if it represents building up others. A wind chime could represent sounds of harmony. A rope might bind people together in unity.

Let each person think of one item that represents the instrument of peace he or she would like to be. If possible, have family members actually go and get the item they are thinking of. Then let each person explain how his or her instrument represents peace.

Take turns praying. Ask each person to pray that God would make him or her an instrument like the one they have chosen. For example, “Lord, help me to be like these ear plugs. They make things quiet, and I want to be quiet when I think about you.”

When everyone has prayed, again read the prayer of St. Francis aloud as your closing prayer and request.