Prayers of the Saints
Peace Prayer of St. Francis
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;
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.
Attributed to the Franciscan tradition; first printed 1912
About the prayer
Though named for St. Francis, this prayer first appeared in 1912 in the French Catholic magazine La Clochette. Its wide use by St. John XXIII, Cardinal Spellman, and Mother Teresa established it in the modern devotional canon. Whatever the exact origin, its shape — a series of oppositions resolved by self-gift — is thoroughly Franciscan in spirit.
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