Teens and Bullying, Part 3

This past Wednesday at Xchange, we focused on the theme that "We are called to bless the world." As I have discovered, while we certainly have a share of teens in our youth group who have been bullied or who are even the bullies at times, the majority of our teens that we see on a consistent basis make up that much greater demographic somewhere in the middle, the "bystanders." They may not be so harsh to bully, but they also may lack the compassion to be the defenders of those being bullied . . . and this is short of the Gospel that we want to see incarnated in our teens' lives. So, we challenged them to bless those around them and we closed with the famous "Prayer of St. Francis."

As we conclude our reflections on teens and bullying together, I offer you the same prayer. May this be a prayer not only for your own life but for our teens as well.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace
Where there is hatred, let me sow love
Where there is injury, pardon
where there is doubt, faith
where there is despair, hope
where there is darkness, light
where there is sadness joy.

O Divine Master,
grant that I may not seek so much 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.