9th Day of Lent - Saint Francis of Assisi ☮️ The Peace Prayer for Ukraine 🇺🇦

9th Day of Lent - Saint Francis of Assisi  ☮️   The Peace Prayer for Ukraine 🇺🇦

Please say all your prayers for the children, women, and men enduring War in Ukraine.

    On this 9th calendar day of Lent, March 10th, 2022, we celebrate Saint Francis of Assisi – the Patron of Peace and credited author of what is now called “The Prayer of Saint Francis.”

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     This Saint Francis medal has the entire Peace Prayer of St. Francis on it's flip side. Yes, the font is small, but the whole prayer is on there!

 

The Peace Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi

“Make me a channel of your peace,
Where there is hatred let me bring your love,
Where there is injury your pardon Lord,
And where there’s doubt true faith in you.
Make me a channel of your peace,
Where there’s despair in life, let me bring hope,
Where there is darkness, only light,
And where there’s sadness, ever joy.
O Master grant that I may never seek,
So much to be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love with all my soul.
Make me a channel of your peace,
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
In giving of ourselves that we receive.
And in dying that we’re born to eternal life.
O Master grant that I may never seek,
So much to be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
And to love as to love with all my soul.
Make me a channel of your peace,
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
In giving of ourselves that we receive.
And in dying that we’re born to eternal life.
Make me a channel of your peace.

 

     The Prayer or Song or Poem has been recited millions of times throughout the world. Most people still believe the Peace Prayer was coined by Saint Francis of Assisi, but “that aint necessarily so.” Those of you who have been loyal friends of SaintsforSinners ~ SaintsforHOPE know we have written about this many times before and we believe that the authorship is at best, unknown.

     Dr. Christian Renoux from the University of Orleans, France, thinks the Peace Prayer actually came about fairly recently. Here are Dr. Renoux’s Comments, verbatim: 

Origin of The Prayer of Saint Francis

     The first appearance of the Peace Prayer occurred in France in 1912 in a small spiritual magazine called La Clochette (“The Little Bell”). 

     It was published in Paris by a Catholic association known as La Ligue de la Sainte-Messe (The Holy Mass League), founded in 1901 by a French priest, Father Esther Bouquerel (1855-1923). 

     The prayer bore the title of 'Belle prière à faire pendant la messe' (A Beautiful Prayer to Say During the Mass) and was published anonymously. 

     The author could possibly have been Father Bouquerel himself, but the identity of the author remains a mystery.

     The prayer was sent in French to Pope Benedict XV in 1915 by the French Marquis Stanislas de La Rochethulon. 

     This was soon followed by its 1916 appearance, in Italian, in L'Osservatore Romano [the Vatican's daily newspaper]. 

     Around 1920, the prayer was printed by a French Franciscan priest on the back of an image of St. Francis with the title 'Prière pour la paix' (Prayer for Peace) but without being attributed to the saint. 

    Between the two world wars, the prayer circulated in Europe and was translated into English. Its has been attributed the first time to Saint Francis in 1927 by a French Protestant Movement, Les Chevaliers du Prince de la Paix (The Knights of the Prince of Peace), founded by Étienne Bach (1892-1986).

      The first translation in English that we know of appeared in 1936 in Living Courageously, a book by Kirby Page (1890-1957), a Disciple of Christ minister, pacifist, social evangelist, writer and editor of The World Tomorrow (New York City). Page clearly attributed the text to St. Francis of Assisi. During World War II and immediately after, this prayer for peace began circulating widely as the Prayer of St. Francis, specially through Francis Cardinal Spellman's books, and over the years has gained a worldwide popularity with people of all faiths.

     In all respects, the Peace Prayer is indeed, a beautiful prayer to say for the people in Ukraine.

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