Lord, make me an instrument of your peace

Known as the Simple Prayer or Peace Prayer, this piece was published anonymously in January 1912 in the French magazine La Clochette (Paris). It was attributed to St Francis of Assisi from 1916 onward, when it appeared on the reverse of a picture of the saint. It is not historically by St Francis, yet it faithfully expresses his spirit; for that reason the tradition has kept it under his name.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is discord, union;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is error, truth;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is sadness, joy;
where there is darkness, light.

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.