A Prayer In Honor Of St Francis of Assisi

This week the Church will be celebrating the feast day of St Francis of Assisi. As one of the greatest saints of the Church, he has also held a considerable influence on my own spiritual and theological development.

To start this week off, I thought I would share a prayer I wrote for my Master’s thesis. That work was an examination of some of the problems that are debated in traditional Christology, and I tried to show how a different philosophical framework (Yogacara Buddhism) could be used to help answer those problems.

In it, I wrote the prayer to show the practical applications of my Christological reflections. As one can see, in it one can find St Francis’ prayer for peace. St Francis, I believe, shows us one way for inter-religious dialogue, and his spiritual insights have a strong concordance with the best of Buddhist thought.

I have edited the prayer slightly since the time I wrote my thesis, because I needed to smooth out a couple rough portions from the end of the prayer.



Vows

My Lord and My God,
I will work for the salvation of all beings.
I will work to remove all my evil desires and attachments.
I will study and practice your ways,
So that I can realize the way of truth.

My Lord and My God,
However innumerable the sentient beings, I will work to help them all.
However inexhaustible the passions which lead to sin, I will work to extinguish them all.
However immeasurable are your ways, I will follow them.
However incomparable is the truth, I will work to attain it.

My Lord and My God,
I will work to save all beings from difficulties,
I will work to destroy all evil passions,
I will work to learn the truth and so that I can teach it to others,
I will work to lead all towards union with you.

My Lord and My God,
I will work to deliver all beings from suffering,
I will work to cut off all afflictions,
I will study all approaches to the truth,
I will follow the path to the Beatific Vision: nirvana.

My Lord and My God,
As sentient beings are numberless, I will help ferry them across the ocean of suffering,
As confusion is inexhaustible, I work to uproot it,
As your ways are without measure, I will seek to know them all,
As unity with the Mystical Body of Christ is unsurpassed, I will work to actualize it fully.

Concluding Prayers

My Lord and My God,
Make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy. (Prayer of St. Francis)

My Lord and My God,
Make me an instrument of your compassion.
Where there is ignorance, let me bring wisdom;
Where there is sin, virtue;
Where there is suffering, healing;
Where there is pride, humility;
Where there is discord, harmony.

Through the prayers of the Mother of God and of all the saints, may I obtain the grace I need to know the needs of others, the way to help them out of their suffering, and the strength needed to guide all souls on the path of salvation, especially those who are in most need of mercy. Amen.