(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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