The name Francis and the man from Assisi run through our family.
Four years of St. Francis high school in Brooklyn ny. Five years of Franciscan college novitiate seminary. A lifetime of eremetic retiro-isolamento-in-the-world attempts to mature in the calling of Francis.
Our Border Collie, Rokpa, was born on the feast day of Francis ten years ago.
The chapel/zendo was dedicated to the honor of Janet our elder and the generosity of Jim her son and Paul the builder on October 4, 2003.
The hermitage itself is named after Francis of Assisi and Dogen Eihei Zenji, those two 12th/13th century spiritual practical visionaries. We practice in their glow and example.
So, today, we step into the day with earth our guide through Francis our father and brother to serve as best we can all our brothers and sisters who also step out onto the earth to enter as instruments of peace and presences of Presence wherever eyes and feet take all of us.
Francis might well have been the guiding light of the prayer named in his honor:
Peace Prayer of Saint Francis
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
Oración por la paz (San Francisco de Asís)
La Oración por la paz es una oración tradicional que suele relacionarse con san Francisco de Asís. San Juan Pablo II la rezó frente a los representantes de las Iglesias cristianas y las religiones del mundo cuando se reunió con ellos para rezar por la paz en 1986.
Señor, haz de mi un instrumento de tu paz.
Que allá donde hay odio, yo ponga el amor.
Que allá donde hay ofensa, yo ponga el perdón.
Que allá donde hay discordia, yo ponga la unión.
Que allá donde hay error, yo ponga la verdad.
Que allá donde hay duda, yo ponga la Fe.
Que allá donde desesperación, yo ponga la esperanza.
Que allá donde hay tinieblas, yo ponga la luz.
Que allá donde hay tristeza, yo ponga la alegría.
Oh Señor,
que yo no busque tanto ser consolado, cuanto consolar,
ser comprendido, cuanto comprender,
ser amado, cuanto amar.
Porque es dándose como se recibe,
es olvidándose de sí mismo como uno se encuentra a sí mismo,
es perdonando, como se es perdonado,
es muriendo como se resucita a la vida eterna.
Amén.
And so:
Grazie, Francesco/Giovanni di Pietro di Bernadone; Siamo nel tuo debito.
, which runs as follows:
], obligations, oaths, and anathemas, whether called 'ḳonam,' 'ḳonas,' or by any other name, which we may vow, or swear, or pledge, or whereby we may be bound, from this Day of Atonement until the next (whose happy coming we await), we do repent. May they be deemed absolved, forgiven, annulled, and void, and made of no effect; they shall not bind us nor have power over us. The vows shall not be reckoned vows; the obligations shall not be obligatory; nor the oaths be oaths."
: "Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who hast preserved us and hast brought us to enjoy this season." In many congregations Num. xiv. 19-20 is recited before this benediction. After it the Torah-scrolls are replaced, and the customary evening service begins.
