HRE20 – Called to Be Just
Miss McBride
Name: _________________
Date: __________________
Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi
Background
The Prayer of Saint Francis is a Christian prayer. It is attributed to the 13thcentury saint Francis of Assisi, although the prayer in its present form cannot be traced
back further than 1912, when it was printed in France in French, in a
small spiritual magazine called La Clochette (The Little Bell) as an anonymous prayer, as
demonstrated by Dr Christian Renoux in 2001. The prayer has been known in the United
States since 1936 and Cardinal Francis Spellman and Senator Albert W.
Hawkes distributed millions of copies of the prayer during and just after World War II.[1]
Lord, make me an instrument of your 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
Countering injustice: a prayer of opposites
St. Francis demonstrates a Christian response to injustice in this prayer, by countering
injustice with an opposite action. The Christian response is anything that opposes
injustice.
Inspiration
Identify and describe three types of violence (with examples) in your own community.
You will write your own prayer that is modeled (pattern of opposites) after the “Prayer
of St. Francis of Assisi.” The prayer will identify your communal forms of violence and
the Christian responses that are needed to counter them.