Timber Hawkeye says his morning meditation is the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi.  He shared his version of the prayer in the new book, Faithfully Religionless.  Timber modified the original; you can find that elsewhere, e.g. in Mother Theresa’s Nobel Prize Speech.  Now I start my morning practice with Timber’s version.

To my readers who roll their eyes or do other painful gymnastics at the words “Lord” or “O’Divine Master”: I know.  Try this trick: replace those with “Universe”, “Heart”, “Mother Nature”, “Atman”, … – you get the idea, – and you are good to go.  The “self” in the last line can be “ego”, “Ahamkara”; the “eternal life” can just as well be here and now.  

Lord, I am an instrument of peace.

Where there is hatred (within), I shall sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

where there is sadness, joy.

O’Divine Master,

I shall not so much seek to be consoled as to console;

to be understood as to understand;

or to be loved as to love.

For it’s in giving that we receive;

it’s in pardoning that we are pardoned;

it’s in dying to self that we are born to eternal life.