The Eleventh Step Prayer
November 13, 2006 by Mark
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
The Eleventh Step Prayer is also known as “The Prayer of St. Francis” and that is the way I know it best. I’d like to consider something from the prayer for my own life but first, let me repeat the prayer;
The Prayer of St. Francis
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred . . . let me sow love
Where there is injury . . . pardon
Where there is doubt . . . faith
Where there is despair . . . hope
Where there is darkness . . . light
Where there is sadness . . . joy
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,
It is in dying . . . that we are born to eternal life
What would I like to consider?
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred . . . let me sow love
Is my anger getting the best of me to the point that I am saying “I Hate – Whatever?” I hear folks say to others that hate is a strong word and that is true. How about those of us who are “working” a program of recovery? Are we using the phrase in our daily communications or thoughts? If we are, have I/we lost sight of sowing love? Anger will, imho, cause me to lose the ability to feel or sow love, for myself or towards others. How do you feel about that?
I have lost my anger. I just don’t have the energy. I know it is something within myself that needs adjusting when I do get angry. Like I said I am just to darn tired to excert that kind of energy!
Hey I have not seen you added to the Top100 SoberBlogs? Will you be adding yourself?
This is so true. As we block love to those we encounter or think about, we block the flow of love to us. To withhold it from anyone else, for any reason, is to withhold it from ourselves.
Namaste,
Dharmashanti
There was a time when I hated someone. The feeling consumed me. I wondered whether my own hated, or alcohol, would kill me first. I have been blessed to know the power of forgiveness, which I could not have achieved without sobriety. It was a double blessing! I’m very careful not to use the word “hate” these days for any reason.
Thank you ladies
Yes, I will be there soon Gwen.
I began removing the word “hate” from my vocabulary years ago, even before I got sober. It is just so negative. There are many things I don’t like and many people behave in a way that I don’t condone or like, but I hate no one.
I also have anger no more. I have honestly not been angry since I got sober. Amazing!
Thanks dAAve!
So many others can’t say that… would be nice if they could eh?
Not only am I looking for new prayers, this one seems so simple, but very deep. I like that sort of stuff. When I went through the steps with my sponsor we did an “assignment” Where I was given a list of character defects such as fear, suspicion,revenge, hate, lust, rationalization and so forth. Then we has to make a list of people you hurt in sme way and you can only use 1 character defect per person and talk about all the “good times”. Lastly we wrote out spiritual principals like restraint patience, love, tolerance, humility just to name a few and match them up with the defects sometimes using a dictionary but just having that sheet for the first stretch is helping to help me relearn behaviors like the things in the poem and use them in my new life.
How cool – a prayer made useful in real life rather than being a tool for an argument.
Thanks Carly…