Prayer of St. Francis

My Catholic background raising its head here. I've been struggling lately with resentment and feeling taken...taken advantage of isn't the right way to put it. Used, maybe. I don't want to feel that way. I'm trying to remember what I keep reading, something to the effect of when you are feeling hurt, etc., don't pull away from God; instead, press in closer.

A song that keeps running through my head is a hymn from Church. I don't remember exactly what it's named in the hymnal. "Peace Prayer of St. Francis", maybe. Anyway, it asks for all of the things that I need to keep in mind right now. For those who don't know it, or who don't remember the words, here it is:


Make me a channel of your peace
Where there is hatred, let me bring your love
Where there is injury, your pardon, Lord
And where there's doubt, true faith in you

Oh, Master, grant that I may never seek
So much to be consoled, as to console
To be understood as to understand
To be loved, as to love, with all my soul

Make me a channel of your peace
Where there's despair in life let me bring hope
Where there is darkness, only light
And where there's sadness, ever joy

Make me a channel of your peace
For it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
In giving of ourselves that we receive,
And in dying that we are born to eternal life.

The bolded stanza, in particular, is one I've been repeating and humming to myself as I struggle. I've never been a particularly selfless person, and I am trying to focus in on how I can serve others rather than on expecting things from them. Those expectations can be poison. I hope that I can get to a place where I do for others out of love for them and put my expectations in God.