Psalm 139
1 LORD, you have searched me out and known me;
you know my sitting down and my rising up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
2 You trace my journeys and my resting-places
and are acquainted with all my ways.
3 Indeed, there is not a word on my lips,
but you, O LORD, know it altogether.
4 You press upon me behind and before
and lay your hand upon me.
5 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is so high that I cannot attain to it.
6 Where can I go then from your Spirit?
where can I flee from your presence?
7 If I climb up to heaven, you are there;
if I make the grave my bed, you are there also.
8 If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
9 Even there your hand will lead me
and your right hand hold me fast.
10 If I say, “Surely the darkness will cover me,
and the light around me turn to night,”
11 Darkness is not dark to you;
the night is as bright as the day;
darkness and light to you are both alike.
12 For you yourself created my inmost parts;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
13 I will thank you because I am marvelously made;
your works are wonderful, and I know it well.
14 My body was not hidden from you,
while I was being made in secret
and woven in the depths of the earth.
15 Your eyes beheld my limbs, yet unfinished in the womb;
all of them were written in your book;
they were fashioned day by day,
when as yet there was none of them.
16 How deep I find your thoughts, O God!
how great is the sum of them!
17 If I were to count them, they would be more in number than the sand;
to count them all, my life span would need to be like yours.
18 Oh, that you would slay the wicked, O God!
You that thirst for blood, depart from me.
19 They speak despitefully against you;
your enemies take your Name in vain.
20 Do I not hate those, O LORD, who hate you?
and do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
21 I hate them with a perfect hatred;
they have become my own enemies.
22 Search me out, O God, and know my heart;
try me and know my restless thoughts.
23 Look well whether there be any wickedness in me
and lead me in the way that is everlasting.
A Prayer Attributed to St. Francis
Lord, make us instruments of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let us sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is discord, union;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
Grant that we 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.
