Happy New Year 2009

Mark and I wish each of you a very happy 2009. And instead of making resolutions that I will no doubt surely break, I instead pray that the thoughts expressed in the following prayer (commonly attributed to St. Francis of Assisi) might be increasingly true in my life. May you might find hope and inspiration in these words during this new year, too.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
when 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.
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.