Saint Francis' prayer

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The so-called prayer of St. Francis (also prayer for peace, simple prayer or Lord, make me an instrument of your peace ) is an anonymous prayer attributed to the Roman Catholic Saint Francis of Assisi (1182-1226) and great in the 20th century Gained notoriety. The person praying asks God to be allowed to participate in his peace. The text, which is formulated in the spirit of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount , is not found in the writings of Francis of Assisi; it cannot be traced back further than 1912.

Section of Scripture bands around the Francis Chapel in Attaching with the complete peace prayer (design by Bernd Flassak )

origin

The prayer for peace appeared for the first time , as far as is known, in the small spiritual magazine La Clochette ('The Bell') in French, published by the Parisian Catholic Association La Ligue de la Sainte-Messe ('The League of Holy Mass') in December 1912. The name of the author is not mentioned. It could have been the founder of La Ligue , Father Esther Auguste Bouquerel .

In 1915, the second year of World War I , Stanislas Marquis of La Rochethulon and Grente (1862–1945), the founders of the “Le Souvenir Normand” association, sent the prayer to Pope Benedict XV. and gave it the surprising title The Prayer of the Souvenir Normand to the Sacred Heart , inspired by the will of William the Conqueror . The Pope had an Italian translation published on the front page of L'Osservatore Romano on January 20, 1916. The La Croix newspaper reproduced the text in French on January 28, 1916.

text

In most of the published versions of the prayer, the text is shortened, paraphrased, and / or copyrighted. Below is the original text from its earliest known publication (1912, French, copyright expired) alongside a German translation.

French original:
Seigneur, faites de moi un instrument de votre paix.
Là où il ya de la haine, que je mette l'amour.
Là où il ya l'offense, que je mette le pardon.
Là où il ya la discorde, que je mette l'union.
Là où il ya l'erreur, que je mette la vérité.
Là où il ya le doute, que je mette la foi.
Là où il ya le désespoir, que je mette l'espérance.
Là où il ya les ténèbres, que je mette votre lumière.
Là où il ya la tristesse, que je mette la joie.
Ô Maître, que je ne cherche pas tant
à être consolé qu'à consoler,
à être compris qu'à comprendre,
à être aimé qu'à aimer,
car c'est en donnant qu'on reçoit,
c'est en s' oubliant qu'on trouve,
c'est en pardonnant qu'on est pardonné,
c'est en mourant qu'on ressuscite à l'éternelle vie.

German translation:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace
that I love wherever you hate;
that I forgive where one offends;
that I connect where there is quarrel;
that I tell the truth where there is error;
that I bring faith where there is doubt;
that I awaken hope where despair torments;
that I kindle light where darkness reigns;
that I bring joy where sorrow resides.
Lord, let me seek,
not to be comforted, but to comfort;
not that I am understood, but that I understand;
not that I am loved, but that I love.
For whoever gives himself receives;
who forgets himself finds;
whoever forgives will be forgiven;
and whoever dies awakens to eternal life.

Attribution to St. Francis

Around 1918 the Franciscan Étienne Benoît reprinted the “Prayer for Peace” without naming the name on the back of a mass-produced card of saints in French.

From January 1927 onwards, prayer circulated in the United States. The first known English version appeared in the Quaker newspaper Friends' Intelligencer under the erroneous title "A Prayer of Saint Francis" and was thus first attributed to Francis of Assisi .

distribution

During the Second World War, Francis Spellman , Archbishop of New York and Military Archbishop of the United States , distributed millions of copies of the Prayer of St. Francis. A year later, Senator Albert W. Hawkes read the prayer for peace in Congress .

The prayer was spoken publicly or partially quoted by many personalities including Mother Teresa , Princess Diana , Margaret Thatcher , Dom Hélder Câmara , Pope John Paul II and Bill Clinton .

It was often set to music and commented on by several authors such as Lanza del Vasto and Leonardo Boff . John Rutter composed the text for four-part choir and organ ( Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace ). German text versions were set to music by Kurt Hessenberg as early as 1946 as his op. 37/1 for six-part mixed choir a cappella and in 1958 by Heinz Werner Zimmermann for six-part mixed choir and double bass. The work of Kurt Hessenberg in particular has found widespread use.

In the Evangelical Hymn book (1993) it is listed as a prayer under No. 825 and as a song with music by Rolf Schweizer (1962/1969) under No. 416. In the Catholic Praise to God (2013) it is listed as a prayer under No. 19.4 and No. 680.3; some regional editions also contain a song version by Winfried Heurich with a melody from Israel ( An'im Sᵉmirot ).

In German language

The first known edition of the prayer in German was published in 1939 in Hans Wirtz 's book Bruder Franz in our time (Luzern, Räber, 1939).

swell

  • Frieder Schulz: The so-called Francis prayer . In: Yearbook for Liturgy and Hymnology . tape 13 . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1968, p. 39-53 , JSTOR : 24193649 .
  • Christian Renoux: La prière pour la paix attribuée à Saint François: une énigme à résoudre . Éditions franciscaines, Paris 2001, ISBN 978-2-85020-096-0 (French).
  • Frieder Schulz: New research on the so-called St. Francis prayer . In: Yearbook for Liturgy and Hymnology . tape 42 . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2002, ISBN 978-3-525-57218-4 , p. 46-53 . (Review of Christian Renoux's book).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Christian Renoux: La prière pour la paix attribuée à saint François . Editions franciscaines, 2001, pp. 25-26.
  2. ^ Souvenir Normand was a regionalist, Catholic and European-pacifist association at the same time. La Rochethulon derived its descent from William the Conqueror (Laurent Quevilly: La naissance du Souvenir normand ). The “Will of Wilhelm” refers to his last words on his deathbed, as told by Ordericus Vitalis ; afterwards he forgave his rebellious eldest son Robert and accused himself of having committed excessive atrocities during the (godly) conquest of England ( text in English and Latin ).
  3. ^ Christian Renoux: La prière pour la paix attribuée à saint François . Editions franciscaines, 2001, pp. 25-26.
  4. ↑ Belle prière à faire pendant la fair. The Origin of the Peace Prayer of St. Francis. In: La Clochette, No. 12. Esther Bouquerel, December 1912, p. 285 , accessed on August 5, 2017 (French).
  5. ^ Christian Renoux: La prière pour la paix attribuée à saint François . Editions franciscaines, 2001, pp. 71-75.
  6. ^ A prayer of St. Francis of Assissi . In: Friends' Intelligencer . tape 84 , no. 4 . Religious Society of Friends , Philadelphia 1927, p. 66 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed August 5, 2017]).
  7. ^ Christian Renoux: La prière pour la paix attribuée à saint François . Editions franciscaines, 2001, pp. 92-96.
  8. ^ Christian Renoux: La prière pour la paix attribuée à saint François . Editions franciscaines, 2001, pp. 111-125.
  9. ↑ Frieder Dehlinger: 416 - O Lord, make me an instrument of your peace . In: Liederkunde zum Evangelisches Gesangbuch . No. 25 . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2019, ISBN 978-3-525-50348-5 , pp. 69–75 , doi : 10.13109 / 9783666503481.69 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  10. ^ Edition Church Province Hamburg 868