Melissa Hortman: "Lord, Make me an instrument of your peace": Prayer of St. Francis

In a voice choked with emotion, Colin Hortman said his parents embodied the “Golden Rule,” and he read the prayer of St Francis, which his mother always kept in her wallet. He said it captures her essence.

The Minnesota Reformer, June 28,2025

The words of the prayer associated with his name were actually written by someone else over a century ago.

However, St. Francis of Assisi’s life was characterized primarily by love of all people and creatures, and he focused on compassion and gentleness toward everyone in his life and writings.

Moreover, Francis is a symbol of peace, which is why the “Prayer of St. Francis” was named for him after the First World War.

Francis would be shocked at how a country that was once a beacon of freedom and love that was proud of these words has become a locus of horrible violence and hatred,

Give me your tired, your poor,Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

Emma Lazarus, “The New Colossus”

Funeral Mass: Basilica of Saint. Mary’s

The violent death of a former speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives and her husband was remembered by many after she was brutally murdered earlier this month.

They remembered a woman who had risen from rather poor roots to earn a law degree and engage in public service,

Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman’s life embodied the American dream. She was raised in a family that owned a junkyard, became a lawyer but declined a life of comfortable wealth for public service, emerging as among the most influential legislators in Minnesota history.

Now she’s an emblem of the American nightmare, another victim — along with husband Mark Hortman and their golden retriever Gilbert — of the political violence that’s consumed America in the past decade, adding Brooklyn Park to Buffalo, El Paso and other grim signposts of a damaged democracy

Michelle Griffith and J. Patrick Coolican, “After violent deaths, children of Hortmans

pray for peace at parents’ funeral,” Minnesota Reformer, June 28,2025

She and her husband Mark were brutally murdered by a right-wing terrorist, Vance Boelter, who also shot two other Democrats and had listed the names of many others in public service that he wanted to kill.

The Prayer of St. Francis

Before Ms. Hortman’s children spoke and mentioned that she always kept a copy of The Prayer of St. Francis in her wallet, Father Daniel Griffith of the Basilica of Saint Mary said about the injustices that Melissa tried to ameliorate” in her life,

“In Minnesota we have been the ground zero place, sadly, for racial injustice — the killing of George Floyd just miles from our church,” Griffith said. “And now we are the ground zero place for political violence and extremism. Both of these must be decried in the strongest terms, as they are, respectively, a threat to human dignity and indeed our democracy.”

Michelle Griffith and J. Patrick Coolican, Minnesota Reformer, June 28,2025

Then Colin Hortman, his voice shaking with emotion, stood in front of the mourners, many of whose eyes were red from crying,

The Hortmans were proud of their adult children, Sophie and Colin Hortman, and the lawmaker often spoke of them.

In a voice choked with emotion, Colin said his parents embodied the “Golden Rule”, and he read the prayer of St Francis, which his mother always kept in her wallet. He said it captures her essence. It starts: “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.”

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 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.

Michelle Griffith and J. Patrick Coolican, Minnesota Reformer, June 28,2025

State will pursue charges against killer

Boelter was arrested a few days after the shooting in what has been called a politically motivated assassination, but they are attempting to prevent this from being a federal case.

That is because the man who initiated the politics of hatred ten years ago would then have the power to pardon him.

The state captured him and has been jailed in Sherburne County Jail, and his lawyers have complained about the brutal conditions in the jail.

Federal charges have also been filed, but again, the state has custody and should have the first trial.