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Peace Prayer of St. Francis

Also known as Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace, Simple Prayer

The best known prayer attributed to St. Francis, though it first appears in print in 1912. It asks not to be consoled, understood or loved — which is why it is harder to mean than to say.

Traditional English

Lord, make me an instrument of thy 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;
and 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.
Amen.

Source

First printed in La Clochette, Paris, 1912; attributed to St. Francis by later tradition

This text is in the public domain. About these texts

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