A beautiful morning, with a tad bit cooler temps, a great time to say the daily office as the sun rises on a new day. Today I used the Mission St. Clare app for Morning Prayer. Please comment on your own experience in the comments below. Also, if you are not subscribed to the blog you can do so on the left hand side, that way you will receive an email whenever a new post is created.

In our St. Simon’s Cycle of Prayer, Thursday –Pray for the DoK, ECW, Brotherhood of St. Andrew, Pastoral Care team and the Flower Guild

Today is the Feast Day of Francis of Assisi. Like many Episcopal churches, we will celebrate Francis by offering a Blessing of the Animals on Saturday at 10am. Bring your pets, invite your friends!

The prayer of St. Francis is found in our Book of Common Prayer, and in my prayer time today I reflected on the beauty of this prayer and its calling to us to live a better life, to rise above the discord that has replaced civil discourse in our country. Lord, let us, those who follow Jesus Christ, those striving to be his disciples, let us be instruments of your peace. Let us sow love. Amen.

The Prayer of St. Francis

Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that we 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.