I do not like the Prayer of St. Francis. Although it is very well structured and some points it makes are good, it also includes some parts which are very objectionable to me. I felt I could create a version which more truly expressed what I feel to be good moral beliefs and so I did. My objections to the Prayer of St. Francis fall into various categories.
I do not believe that the divine is higher in some hierarchical spiritual structure than me, or that the divine is in any sort of hierarchical structure at all. So the references to Lord and Master seem inappropriate.
I do not believe that only the divine can create peace, or that true peace is a gift of the divine. So I prefer the term “instrument of our peace” to “instrument of your peace” found in the Prayer.
I believe in the many practical, spiritual and moral benefits of doubt well used, and feel that faith, while useful, is not the best thing to center a life around. So I prefer a prayer which supports the replacement of faith with doubt, not one which supports a closed and limited world view.
I believe that both darkness and light are useful and important parts of the world, and that neither is worse than the other. So the references to replacing darkness with light do not seem like what I wish to support.
The above points, while important, occurred to me only after studying the Prayer. This point leaped out at me as soon as I read the Prayer. The idea that it is better to console than to be consoled and to understand instead of being understood has a long and honorable history. So does the idea that in giving, one receives, and it dying one lives. But when these two ideas are put together, it causes unfortunate thoughts to spring to mind; thoughts like, “If in giving you receive, when you ask to be able to give a lot, aren’t you just craftily asking to receive a lot? But isn’t that exactly what you’re not supposed to do?”
I do not believe that it is better to give than to receive; I believe that it is better to both give and receive. I believe that both understanding and being understood are good, and both should be celebrated and prayed for.
Although the idea that in giving we receive I believe is true, I feel it can better be stated as in living, we both give and receive.
The idea that in dying we are born to eternal life, is, in my view, a repulsive doctrine. It suggests abandoning life right now, while promising it later. Living in hope, while better than living in despair, is not a good state. Living for NOW is what is important. Now is when we can do things, now is when things will happen to us. Now is all we will ever experience. As the last line of the revised version of the Prayer says, “It is in living that we create a better life.”
Typed by Jesse Weinstein on 9/12/01
View the original prayer.
Return to my revised prayer