This prayer is usually attributed to Saint Francis of Assisi (1182-1286). Sometimes it is called, The Prayer for Peace. Whether Francis wrote it or not doesn't really matter; the thought behind each line sounds very much like Francis. Notice how the eyes of the saint are big. They take in a lot of light - God's light. Francis sees. That doens't mean he had visions, but that he was wide-awake to the truth contained in the Gospel book he holds in his hand: the truth of love for God and each human person.
The nation is painfully divided. Everyday brings some new point of division: nasty social media, name calling, labeling, menacing accusations, threats. "Otherism" is the negative ideology which disapproves of (or hates) anyone who is not like me. "Otherism" believes that those who are not like me should go back to where they came from. It is un-gospel, even anti-gospel. Regretably, it is too often Christians who are the perpetrators. St. Francis' prayer summarizes Christ's Gospel-lifestyle. We might pray it for our country, which likes to think of itself as religious.
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.
