The first priority in Archbishop Mark’s Apostolic Priorities for the Archdiocese of Brisbane, documented in With Lamps Ablaze, is Teaching Prayer. He says, “Often we urge people to pray but don’t really teach them how to pray… Now is the time to teach ways of prayer which are mature and all-embracing. Christian prayer begins not with speaking but with listening; and learning to pray is therefore learning to listen – to listen even to the silences of God. If all we do is speak, then in the words of Jesus we “babble like the pagans” (Matt 6:7). But if we speak after listening and in response to God who always has the first word, then we speak according to the mind of the Holy Spirit. That’s what we need to teach and learn. In the Gospel of Mark, we read that Jesus called the twelve apostles to himself, first of all, “that they might be with him” (3:14). This is where the mission starts: being with Jesus, which is what prayer is.”

Today we commence a new weekly series, Let’s Pray, and we invite you to pray along with us. Each week we will invite you to pray a new prayer with us – maybe you don’t know what to pray, or want to pray along with someone, or want to practice your faith through prayer. Our Let’s Pray series is for everyone.

This week, let’s pray with Sr Salvacion Bunao SFI (St. Francis’ Institution) the Peace Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi for his feast day on 4 October. Thanks for joining us – we hope to see you again soon.

• Peace Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi Transcript

  Peace Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi Transcript

  Author: Archdiocese of Brisbane

  
  So my name is Sr Salvacion, and I belong to the Franciscan Immaculatine Sisters. Currently a missionary in Australia and residing in Brisbane. Today we are praying the Peace Prayer of Saint Francis and I invite you to come and join 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.

  Thank you for joining us today in praying the Peace Prayer. And we hope to see you again next time.