Widely known as The Prayer of St. Francis, it is not found in Esser's authoritative collection of Francis's writings.
[Fr. Kajetan, Esser, OFM, ed., Opuscula Sancti Patris Francisci Assisiensis, Rome, Grottaferrata, 1978]. Additionally there is no record of this prayer before the twentieth century.
[Fr. Regis J., Armstrong, OFM, Francis and Clare: The Complete Works, New York, Paulist Press, 1982, 10, 0-8091-2446-7]. Dr. Christian Renoux of the University of Orleans in France traces the origin of the prayer to an anonymous 1912 contributor to La Clochette, a publication of the Holy Mass League in Paris. It was not until 1927 that it was attributed to St. Francis.
The Origin of the Peace Prayer of St. Francis, 2013-06-28, Renoux, Christian http://www.franciscan-archive.org/franciscana/peace.html,.
[Christian, Renoux, La prière pour la paix attribuée à saint François: une énigme à résoudre, Paris, Editions franciscaines, 2001, 2-85020-096-4].
Misattributed
“Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love.”
Statement on the doorstep of 10 Downing Street, after her election as Prime Minister, as quoted at On this day (BBC) http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/4/newsid_2503000/2503195.stm. (This is a paraphrasing of a prayer commonly misattributed to St. Francis of Assisi.)
First term as Prime Minister
Source: [Who wrote Prayer of St. Francis? Doubtful it was friar, San Diego Union-Tribune, 27 January 2009, 28 July 2019, https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sdut-1n27prayer00320-who-wrote-prayer-st-francis-doubtf-2009jan27-htmlstory.html, Lord, make me an instrument of thy 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.]
Source: [The real prayer of Francis of Assisi, Howse, Christopher, The Daily Telegraph, 12 April 2013, 28 July 2019, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9991301/The-real-prayer-of-Francis-of-Assisi.html, That was written in 1912, in French, and published in a pious magazine edited by Fr Esther Bouquerel. It was attributed to St Francis in 1927 through its having been printed on the back of a picture of the saint.]
Source: [Who wrote Prayer of St. Francis? Doubtful it was friar, San Diego Union-Tribune, 27 January 2009, 28 July 2019, https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sdut-1n27prayer00320-who-wrote-prayer-st-francis-doubtf-2009jan27-htmlstory.html, An article published last week in L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, said the prayer in its current form dates only from 1912, when it appeared in a French Catholic periodical. ... Although news to many, the truth about the prayer had apparently been hiding in plain sight. “No one among the Franciscans ever thought it really was by St. Francis,” said Giovanni Maria Vian, the editor of L'Osservatore Romano.]
“Without hatred where's the light?
Without darkness where's the love?”
JTR
The Lillywhite Sessions (2001)
Peter Camenzind (1904)
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 119.
The Church in Ecuador officially launches the National Mission: “The Church is in need of a good house-cleaning.” http://www.fides.org/en/news/24075-AMERICA_ECUADOR_The_Church_in_Ecuador_officially_launches_the_National_Mission_The_Church_is_in_need_of_a_good_house_cleaning (28 April 2009)
His reaction after he had given away his wealth and legal career and had set up a work camp and started living with common people with his family when he had met a dying leper on the road, pages=6-7
Baba Amte: A Vision of New India
“We pardon to the extent that we love.”
Maxim 330.
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665–1678)
