Not only was this prayer not written by St Francis, but according to one biographer, "Noble as its sentiments are, Francis would not have written such a piece, focused as it is on the self, with its constant repetition of the pronouns 'I' and 'me', the words 'God' and 'Jesus' never appearing once."
Dr Christian Renoux, who wrote a study of the origins of this prayer, says that it was first attributed to St Francis in 1927 by a French Protestant movement, Les Chevaliers du Prince de la Paix. The earliest known English translation dates to the same year, and was also attributed to St Francis. It became very popular in America during the Second World War, and has remained so ever since. Although written in a Catholic Christian context, it has been widely adopted by people of many different faiths. According to Kevin Flannagan of the United Methodist Church, this has been possible because of the "broadly inclusive language" of the prayer.
The hymn based on this prayer, Make me a channel of your peace, was written by Sebastian Temple (1928 - 1997), and published in 1967. Temple was born in South Africa, spent some time living in London working for the BBC, and moved to America in 1958, where he joined the Franciscan Third Order. He wrote Make me a channel of your peace as one of a collection of songs commissioned by the Franciscans. In a letter quoted by Ian Bradley in his book, The Daily Telegraph Book of Hymns (p 277), Temple described writing the song:
I wrote so easily and so prolifically that I took for granted that I could write music to the peace prayer of St Francis . . . its strange form drove me crazy. I could not come up with anything that sounded like music to my ears . . . Finally, I was disgusted, looked at the little statue of St Francis on my shelf and said angrily, 'Well if you want it, YOU do it. I can't.' I got up, went to the kitchen, made a cup of tea and drank it. When I returned to the guitar, I picked it up, had the tape running, and the song fell out of my mouth as it was recorded a few days later.
The hymn is well-known and very popular in the UK. Both GodSongs.net and Kevin Flannagan (see above) put that popularity down to its inclusion in the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997. However, it appeared in British hymn books well before that: Mission Praise (1983) and Songs of Fellowship (1991) both include it.
This week, as we mark the anniversary of the end of World War One, (Remembrance Day in the UK and Commonwealth, Veterans Day in the US, Armistice Day in France, Volkstrauertag in Germany), it seemed appropriate to choose a song based on a prayer for the grace to bring peace and all that is good into our relationships and dealings, one with another.
You can hear Sebastian Temple's original recording of Make me a channel of your peace here. There's a Songs of Praise recording with lyrics, featuring Tessera, here.
A word about the picture above (link and accreditation below): When I found this picture, and read the notes with it, I decided that it was perfect to illustrate this post. The photo was taken in the Philippines on 26 June 2020. The photographer was enjoying the sunset on his/her way home from work:
And then I saw a kid approaching with his bike. I quickly grabbed my phone, hoping I'd catch him . . . He looked so safe and secure. There's so much beauty, peace, and calmness. A little different from what the world is going through right now. Fear. Hate. Injustice. Pain. Despair. Confusion. Unbelief. The list can go on. But that doesn't mean that we can no longer live like the kid in the photo. We still can. Think of the beauty that's still left. Have Faith. Believe. Hope. The world needs you. Us. Keep praying. Remember, peace is not the absence of chaos. It is that despite the chaos, we still surprisingly experience extraordinary, unexplainable peace . . . only God can give us that kind of peace. The peace that transcends all understanding!
Picture: Peace undeniable. Calm so tangible; trimmed. by Arch.elam CC BY-SA 4.0.
No comments:
Post a Comment