After the World Vision dustup last week and personal and professional confrontations, it’s good for me to return to a prayer I try to offer as often as I recall it.

“Teach me to act firmly and wisely,” it goes, “without embittering and embarrassing others.”

That can be a tall order, especially these days when important controversies take place without the benefit of in-person conversation and connection.

I’ve been praying that prayer with varying degrees of effectiveness since late 2008 or early 2009 when I first purchased a copy of A Manual of Eastern Orthodox Prayers, published originally by the Fellowship of St. Alban and St. Sergius.

The ecumenical group, formed mainly of Anglicans and Orthodox, included the prayer in their slender volume and attributed it to Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow. But I was delighted and encouraged to hear Fr. Tom Hopko’s recent comment on the prayer.

It turns out that Philaret was friends with the Catholic archbishop and poet François Fénelon. The prayer was his. Philaret translated it into Russian. Years later it was retranslated into English and included in the Sts. Alban and Sergius prayer book.

So here we have in the very transmission of the prayer an example of its answer — Catholics, Orthodox, and Anglicans together offering both the words and a model of peace.

There are things worth arguing about, Lord knows. But, Lord, help us do so without embittering and embarrassing each other in the process.

Here’s the full text of the Fénelon/Philaret prayer: