The Tenth Sunday After Pentecost

This Sunday we will be looking at some of the meanings given to the many details found in the San Damiano Cross of St. Francis. As you know, we have recently purchased a new processional cross and I would like to spend some time considering what this Cross “says” to us, why we choose this cross, and how I hope it helps us to envision and enact God’s calling for this church.
As we prepare for this Sunday, let us pray these words together that so beautifully capture the spirit and mission of St. Francis and the message he received from this very same cross!

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.

O 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,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.