Jul 19, 2013

Make Me a Channel of Your Peace

Lyrics: Hymns - Make Me a Channel of Your Peace

 
Make me a channel of Your peace

Lyrics:
1. Make me a channel of your peace:
Where there is hatred, let me bring you love;
Where there is injury, your healing pow'r,
And where there's doubt, true faith in you.

2. 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.

3. O Spirit, grant that I may never seek
So much to be consolded as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love with all my soul - .

4. Make me a channel of your peace.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
In giving to all that we receive,
And in dying that we're born to eternal life.



Author: A Prayer of St. Francis, written by Johann Sebastian von Tempelhoff

Date: unknown

Story:

Most modern hymns are penned by Protestants, but one of the best ones from recent decades comes from a Franciscan named Johann Sebastian von Tempelhoff (1928-1997). Tempelhoff was a prolific singer and songwriter under the name Sebastian Temple. Born in Pretoria, South Africa, he was a Scientologist for a time before he converted to Catholicism.

This hymn is based on a traditional prayer attributed to St. Francis of Assisi, though modern scholars usually credit a later Franciscan, Jacopo di Toddi. In English, the prayer reads:

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 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.

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