St. Francis Prayer:

God, make ____________ and ____________ a channel of your peace:

That where there is hatred they may bring love;  Where there is hurt they may bring the spirit of forgiveness;  Where there is doubt they may bring faith;  Where there is despair they may bring hope;  Where there is darkness they may bring light;  Where there is sadness they may bring joy. 

For it is by giving that they shall receive, by losing that they shall find, by forgiving that they shall be forgiven.

God grant that they seek rather to comfort than to be comforted,   To understand than to be understood,

To love than to be loved.

We invoke thy gentlest blessings, O God, on all true lovers. We thank you for the revealing power of love, which divines in the one beloved the mystic beauty, and glory of humanity. We thank you for the transfiguring power of love, which ripens and ennobles our nature, calling forth the hidden stores of tenderness and strength and, overcomes selfishness by the passion of self-surrender.    May the love of ____________ and ____________ be strong, that no misunderstanding loosen the bond and no passing of the years have the power to dim the light that now glows in them. May they early gain wisdom to discern the true values of life, and may no circumstances take from them the wholesome peace and inward satisfaction which only love can give.    Grant them vision to look beyond this moment to the generations yet to come, and to know that the home they create will be part of the sacred body of humanity in which you dwell, that they may have reverence for others and for themselves, and drink the cup of joy with awe.