I was a huge admirer of the Prayer of St. Francis back in my Christian days. I thought it contained a lot of good words of wisdom. In fact, that prayer was one of the stimuli that sent me down the path towards skepticism, particularly the line that says "May [I] not so much seek... to be understood, as to understand." That one line in St. Francis of Assisi's prayer burned through my pretenses as a Christian apologist. My time spent as a "defender of the faith" was one in which I didn't listen to the arguments or thoughts of the "opposition," but instead worked like hell to make sure my point came across. When I took that line from the prayer to heart, my mind began to change.
I return to this prayer - the very prayer that paradoxically helped shape my thinking as a skeptic - with the intention of reworking it, to truly make it a skeptic's prayer. So here it is, the Prayer of St. Francis, reworded by me:
May I be an instrument of peace. Where there is hatred, may I sow love. Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is faith, curiosity. Where there is despair, hope. Where there is darkness, light. Where there is sadness, joy. May I 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 the rule of logic that we find freedom of thought, and it is in humility that we live the examined life. |
