Prayer of Peace

Prayer of Peace

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me bring love.
Where there is offence, let me bring pardon.
Where there is discord, let me bring union.
Where there is error, let me bring truth.
Where there is doubt, let me bring faith.
Where there is despair, let me bring hope.
Where there is darkness, let me bring your light.
Where there is sadness, let me bring joy.

O Lord, 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 one receives,
it is in self-forgetting that one finds,
it is in forgiving that one is forgiven,
it is in dying that one awakens to eternal life.

The “Prayer of St. Francis”, “Prayer of Peace”, or simply the “Peace Prayer” is a beautiful prayer that I discovered over a year ago. I find that as I get older my spiritual walk is being more and more enriched by simple prayers like this. Some might wonder if a simple prayer like this isn’t simply a “heaping up of empty words,” and if it would be better to pour out our heart to God; however, a simple prayer such as this fosters something beautiful inside of us when we meditate upon it. Soaked in the scripture, this prayer can form not only our own hearts but also the heart of the world.

Although this prayer is often attributed to St. Francis of Assisi, it’s origins seem to be in the early 20th century. Dr. Christian Renoux, the co-founder of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation, traced the origins of this simple prayer to a small magazine in France in 1912 (1). This simple prayer circled the globe over the next thirty years as the world was engrossed in war.

It seems that age after age we find ourselves needing peace both individually and collectively. As Christians we are called to be peacemakers because we are blessed to be children of God (Matt. 5:9). My hope and prayer is that we might have a deepeningdesire to spread peace and that begins by taking ownership of how we show up in the world.

I hope you take some time to meditate on this simple prayer, and I imagine the Lord would do some amazing things both in and through us all!

P.S. There’s a beautiful song version of this prayer by Sarah McLachlan that you can view here.

References

1) https://www.franciscan-archive.org/franciscana/peace.html