Weekly beauty: Prayer of St. Francis de Sales

I found this prayer (which really reads more like a blessing with its second-person language) on A Place for Prayer a while back. By total coincidence, the feast day of St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622) was this past Monday, January 24.


The Prayer of St. Francis de Sales

Be at peace
Do not look forward in fear to the changes of life;
rather look to them with full hope as they arise.

God, whose very own you are,
will deliver you from out of them.
God has kept you hitherto,
and God will lead you safely through all things;
and when you cannot stand it,
God will bury you in loving arms.

Do not fear what may happen tomorrow;
the same everlasting parent who cares for you today
will take care of you then and everyday.

God will either shield you from suffering,
or will give you unfailing strength to bear it.

Be at peace,
and put aside all anxious thoughts and imagination.