Self-Pity.

I first heard the Prayer of St. Francis as a song that we sang in choir. The second chunk of it is a solo, which was always sung by one buxom girl with a very throaty voice. That voice made the prayer extra husky and sad, in a pleading sort of way.
Whenever I feel sad for myself, I always try to remember this prayer, because self-pity manifests itself in me in the form of feelings of victimization, maltreatment, neglect... I just need to remind myself to look outward, and think in terms of goals instead of desires.


Lord, make me an instrument of Thy 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;
and 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.