It is a prayer that outlines everything that made Francis the peacemaker that he was and the model for peace that he is for us today. This map has been summed up beautifully in his Peace Prayer, a prayer he did not write but certainly is the way he prayed and lived and taught by example. And the map Francis gave us for learning to love is the Gospel and his own life of following in the footsteps of Christ. Like Francis and his brothers, we all can learn to love again, even in the midst of division and war. They became “Holy Fools” who turned the world upside down by simply living the truth of the Gospel of Christ. He simply loved Christ and lived the Gospel, and he and his brothers became thereby catalysts for social change. Saint Francis began a new evangelization in his own time, not by trying to be social reformer. We work together toward the good, or we perish as individuals, as societies and as civilizations. The Franciscan response to sin and division is to forgive myself and my neighbor, thereby becoming peaceful in my own center, and then to reach out to others and “work mercy” with them, even with those whom I find it difficult to love, who repel me in any way. That is the best option for those committed to living the Gospel.
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