St Francis and Pope Francis

The celebrated prayer of St Francis of Assissi reads as follows: 

(1)   Lord, make me a channel of thy peace.

That where there is hatred I may bring love,

(“Love”)

(2)   That where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness,

That where there is discord, I may bring harmony,

That where there is error I may bring truth,

(“Insight”)

(3)   That where there is doubt I may bring faith,

That where there is despair I may bring hope,

That where there are shadows I may bring light,

That where there is sadness I may bring joy.

(“Fortitude”)

(4)   Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted,

To understand than to be understood,

To love than to be loved.

(“Engagement”)

(5)   For it is by forgetting self that one finds.

It is by forgiving that one is forgiven,

it is by dying that one awakens to eternal life.

Amen.

The prayer was divided into five parts.  The first four parts (numbered 1-4 above), respectively, related directly to Love, Insight, Fortitude, and Engagement.  The spiritual aspirant seeks love, truth, understanding, faith and hope, and prefers a life of active engagement. Active engagement is indicated as the spiritual person seeks to comfort rather than to be comforted, to understand rather than to be understood, and to love rather than to be loved.   The last, i.e., 5th part, simply states the reward of spiritual living.

 Pope Francis is a different pope.  He is much more enlightened than all the others.  He is the first to admit that even atheists can get redemption.  He is one with Jesus, whose Sermon on the Mount transcends religions.