Our Need For Thee, by Francis of Assisi


Our Need For Thee, by Francis of Assisi

In our ever present need for thee:


Beloved, let us know your peace.

Let us be your instruments that break every shackle, for do not the caged ones weep.

And give us our inheritance of divine love so 

that we can forgive like you.

And let us be wise, so that we do not wed another’s madness and then make them in debt to us 

for the deep gash their
helpless raging lance will cause.

Darkness is an unlit wick; it just needs your touch,

Beloved, to become a sacred flame.

And what sadness in this world could endure 

if it looked into your eyes?

God is like a honeybee. He doesn’t mind me calling Him that; for when you are kind—sweet—He nears, and can draw you into Himself.

What is there to understand of each other:

if a wand turned the sun into a moon would not the moon mourn the ecstatic effulgence it once was.

We are all in mourning for the experience of our essence we knew and now miss.

Light is the cure, all else a placebo.

Yes, I will console any creature before me 

that is not laughing or full of passion for their art or life; 

for laughing and passion—
beauty and joy—

is our heart’s truth, 
all else is labor and foreign to the soul.

I have stood in His rain and

now fill granaries as do the fertile plains; giving is as natural to love as sound from the mouth.

There is a courageous dying, it is called effacement.

That holy death unfurls our spirit’s wings and allows us to embrace God even as we stand on the earth.

Francis of Assisi

Question to consider and share a comment here
What phrase of the prayer touched you the most and why?

I sourced this from The Value of Sparrows. Love your work Julia. Follow her on Twitter.

Image by Arandomkiwi (my son Ben) Creative Commons Flickr


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