(A surfer shows Father Christian Mondor and Father Matt Munoz where they’re going to paddle out at the “Blessing of the Waves” event Sunday at the Huntington Beach pier.)

When I was a kid attending Catholic grade school there was a poem of St. Francis’ that was set to music that really moved me:

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

Where there is injury, pardon;

Where there is error, the truth;

Where there is doubt, the 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.

I think it was this prayer that got me interested in St. Francis. Well, that and this amazing movie I saw on TV about his life. He loved animals, as I did. And the suffering he went through to show his devotion to God greatly inspired me.

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