Prayer Of The Unknown Quaker

Alternative Title: "The Prayer of St Francis Of Assisi"

"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 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.

* Although commonly attributed to Francis of Assisi (1181/2-1226 A.D.), the prayer itself cannot be traced back later than 1912 when it appeared in a French magazine entitled, La Clochette (The Little Bell). Further arguing against its Franciscan authenticity is the fact that it does not appear anywhere in the Omnibus of Sources, an extensive compilation of the writings of Francis and his companions.

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The earliest English translation, reproduced above, was printed anonymously in the Quaker periodical Friends' Intelligencer (1927)