Lord, make me an instrument of they 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;
It is in dying [to self] that we are born to eternal life.

Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi From Eknath Easwaran's very excellent book Meditation: Commonsense Directions for an Uncommon Life (Nilgiri Press)...

Having memorized the passage, be seated and softly close your eyes. We defeat the purpose of meditation if we think about, admiring the bird on the sill or watching people come and go....During meditation, we try to pull out the plugs (to our senses) so we can concentrate more fully on the events within....So, shut the eyes - without getting tense about it. Since the body should be relaxed, not strained, there is no need to be effortful....If you have memorized the Prayer, you are ready to go through it word by word, and very, very slowly.... Concentrate on one word at a time, and let the words slip one after another into your consciousness like pearls falling into a clear pond. Let them drop inwards one at a time....after assiduous practice, the words will fall inward: you will see them going in an hitting the very bottom. This takes time, though. Don't expect it to happen next week. Nothing really worth having comes quickly and easily...

Spend a half hour each morning with this exercise and see where it takes your consciousness...