A Study Guide to Instrument of Peace

A Study Guide to Instrument of Peace is designed to help individuals and groups move from simply admiring the Prayer of St. Francis to actively living it. While the companion book explores the meaning of the prayer in a fractured and divided world, this study guide provides a structured, practical pathway for reflection, conversation, and transformation. Its purpose is threefold. First, it invites participants to engage the prayer personally--examining where its words intersect with their own lives, relationships, and struggles. Second, it creates space for communal reflection, helping groups listen deeply to one another and practice being instruments of peace together, even amid disagreement or tension. Third, it moves participants toward embodied action, encouraging concrete practices of reconciliation, humility, and compassionate presence in everyday life. More than a curriculum, this guide is a formation tool. It is meant to be used slowly, prayerfully, and honestly. It assumes that peace is not achieved through avoidance but through courageous engagement--with oneself, with others, and with the world as it is. Ultimately, the study guide exists to help people not just pray for peace but become it.

G. C. Smith is a disaster spiritual care leader, author, and educator with decades of experience supporting individuals and communities in crisis. He serves with Presbyterian Disaster Assistance and is a board member of the Iowa Disaster Human Resource Council. His work focuses on moral injury, faith, and compassionate presence, equipping caregivers and congregations to respond faithfully in fractured and uncertain times.