Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "This morning I was awakened by the trilling of a single bird..." (more)
Key Phrases: black road, red road, Saint Francis, Brother Angelo

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The monastic tradition of lectio divina--holy reading--is a discipline of extremely slow, phrase-by-phrase, meditative reading of scripture. Its desired effect is to plumb the Bible's depths in such a way that scripture's individual words and phrases come to permeate the reader's whole life. In Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace: Living in the Spirit of St. Francis, Kent Nerburn reads the Prayer of Saint Francis in a manner much like lectio, and the rewards of this strategy are rich. The prayer ("Where there is hatred let me sow love ...") is a familiar one, but Nerburn's reflections on its phrases--meandering through stories of his summer jobs as a teenager, his lonely expatriate days in Germany, his long walks on the beaches of Mexico--make the old prayer new again. Nerburn has lived this prayer, and the quiet example of this book will help many readers to do so as well. He unwittingly describes the strength and power of his own project while reflecting on a phrase from the prayer's final stanza, "For it is in giving that we receive." Nerburn writes, "Our spirits are nourished by giving, just as our bodies are nourished by food. This is not mystical; it is not high-minded. It is a simple truth about the way that the energy of life flows back and forth between people when a moment of giving takes place." --Michael Joseph Gross

Review

"An ennobling book. It will not only make you feel better, it might just make you a better person." -- -- Huston Smith, author of The World's Religions

"Kent Nerburn has written a little jewel of a book, to warm the heart and touch the soul." -- -- Rabbi Harold S. Kushner, author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People

"What a lovely book!" -- -- Anne Lamott, author of Bird by Bird and Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith

"An ennobling book. It will not only make you feel better, it might just make you a better person." -- Huston Smith, author of The World's Religions

"I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed Ken Nerburn's Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace. I have never realized the depth of thought in that brief prayer of St. Francis. Kent Nerburn, in a few masterful strokes and touching stories, plumbs its depths and offers us a precious little treasure." -- Joseph F. Girzone, author of Joshua

"Kent Nerburn has tackled a well developed Franciscan prayer and topic with the freshness of an outside and contemporary perspective. Filled with stories from modern life in the west, it is thoroughly enjoyable as a quick, refreshing read, yet filled with spiritual gems." -- John Michael Talbot, founder of Brothers and Sisters of Charity, author of The Lessons of St. Francis

"Kent Nerburn has written a little jewel of a book, to warm the heart and touch the soul." -- Rabbi Harold S. Kushner, author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People

"Kent Nerburn offers his mindful heart and thoughtful presence to illuminate the penetrating wisdom of Francis's sweet prayer. This book is a pearl of great price, revealing how the most potent, authentic prayer is also tender and very human. Kent Nerburn is a wise companion who has given us a blessing to be cherished again and again." -- Wayne Muller, author of Legacy of the Heart and How, Then, Shall We Live?

"What a lovely book!" -- Anne Lamott, author of Bird by Bird and Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: HarperOne; 1 edition (April 21, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0062515810
• ISBN-13: 978-0062515810
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #79,286 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Where There Is Drabness ... Beauty, May 19, 2000

By	C.G. (Southeast USA) - See all my reviews

Reviewer: Cory Giacobbe

This is an insightful, eloquent work. I appreciate that Kent Nerburn keeps honoring the mystery of life, crystallized here in his current work, on St. Francis, and his famous prayer.

Simple, powerful subject; simple, powerful book. There's an obscure song version of the prayer, that I was given to sing back in my Catholic all-girls high school. Replayed only in memory now, I've never again heard any singers perform that specific haunting melody and arrangement. It had a "descant" part, which I as high-soprano sang: a glorious flow of nonverbal, spiraling sound, overlapping the second-soprano and alto parts harmonizing on the actual verses, until all of us merged in a pulsating powerful finale. People would weep in hearing it (and I, in singing it). The author's style reminded me of this. He explores the verses in a quiet, clear, down-to-earth fashion, and yet somehow, audible to the "inner" ear, you might "hear" the counterpoint, a high wonderful rejoicing of the soul (at least, per my soul) in pondering chapter after chapter.

Each section focuses on one line of the prayer. My special favorite is the first chapter evoking the music of love that St. Francis embodies.

Kent Nerburn's book stimulated many realizations for me. (As did the books, The Way of St. Francis, by Murray Bodo, and Man With A Song by F. and H. Line).

In reading Mr. Nerburn's book, I saw clearly how the whole theme of St. Francis' life is that of welcoming. The prayer is an act of embracing. It somehow never registered for me until now, that Francis was of my own ancestry, Italian. At a time when there was no unified concept of an "Italy," at a time of warring city-states, Francis opened his arms, roamed, and welcomed. Ironic. In the latter's immediate world, there was little tourist-consciousness, or scenic appreciation. Villagers looked at forests and feared bandits. Looked at mountains and feared ambush, by enemy army forces. Looked at their nearby neighbors and feared espionage.

Yet here, as Mr. Nerburn exquisitely shows, is a man who felt beauty in viewing forests, mountains, people, and who blessed the outdoors. What an extraordinary mind! He went from place to place, fully expecting, with a miraculous faith in goodness, that fellow Italians would open their doors. He somehow knew they would share the little they had, their crust of bread with him -- and they did. (As did citizens of other lands, with him, later on). I really believe Francis was a forerunner of, what would later develop into, a modern Italian sensibility, love, reputation for, hospitality.

As a complement to this book, you might obtain an old film, The Miracle of Marcelino. In that movie, Italian Franciscan monks, in an Hispanic land, and their adopted orphan, a boy, experience a dramatic spiritual occurrence. With references to St. Francis' life at mealtime, and via the nature of the characters themselves, the very spirit of St. Francis, buoyant, magnanimous, subtly pervades this film. It's as if one is seeing St. Francis' prayer, discussed by Mr. Nerburn, take visible shape. I felt I was seeing St. Francis both as a boy, his sweetness, joy, liveliness, and also as the grown monks, open, caring, spiritually attuned.

Per this shimmering jewel of a book, Kent Nerburn, in his own manner, has accomplished the way of hospitality, harmonizing with his subject. The book prompts me to wonder that perhaps St. Francis deserves a whole line -- honoring mystics like him -- inserted into his own prayer: As in, "Where there is sadness, joy" I can imagine hearing, "Where there is drabness ... BEAUTY!"

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not-so-saintly man and St. Francis write a winner., October 28, 2001

By	Tw Rutledge "Thom Rutledge, author of Embraci... (Nashville, Tennessee United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Kent Nerburn's books are always filled with intelligence and compassion, and "Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace" is an excellent example of just how much head and heart can be beautifully installed into 129 pages. Nerburn's reflections on the Prayer of Saint Francis teach us more about ourselves than about the famous saint, and that is probably just fine with Francis.

Nerburn always emphasizes the practical. "I would rather try to manifest my belief in God than to profess it," he writes. In this way, Saint Francis and the self-admitted not-so-saintly Nerburn make a wonderful team. They teach us that we cannot successfully hide from the dark side of our world or of ourselves; that instead we must face even the "most frightening human emotion" --- hatred --- head on. The goal is not to become a saint, thank goodness, but to accept responsibility to do what we can to manifest, and not just profess, our own beliefs.

Congruent with its contents, the physical book itself makes an excellent gift. I keep several copies in my office to give away whenever I may be so moved --- by the spirit of Saint Francis perhaps. (Although I doubt that Francis is involved in book promotion)

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From the Agent, Joe Durepos, October 27, 1999

By A Customer

Kent Nerburn has written a small but powerful meditation on the prayer commonly attributed to St. Francis of Assisi. He has moved the message of the prayer out of the Church proper and back into street where it's enduring truths still hold. The heart of all wisdom teaching is embodied in the prayer's simple lines, "Where there is hatred, let me sow love." What Nerburn has so effectively done in this book is tell stories that bring each line of the prayer alive and offer examples of it's profound blessing for our lives today.