Lord, Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace

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Lord, Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace for SAB Choir and Piano was begun in early 2018 and finished in late May of the same year.  It was written for the First Congregational Church of Walpole, NH for my final service as their music director and is dedicated to the memory of Judy Spinella and Joan Swett, both of whom were great contributors to the music program of the church and passed away in early 2018. 

This is a setting of the so-called “Prayer of Saint Francis” although there seems to be no evidence that St. Francis wrote it.  The earliest the prayer has been traced back to is 1912 where it was published in a French spiritual magazine called “La Clochette” (“The Little Bell”) and may have been written by its editor Father Esther Bouquerel.  As many others have been, I was attracted to this prayer because it does not ask God to do things on behalf of us but instead through us as active participants in creating heaven on earth.  Rather than a passive plea, it asks for the power and courage to do more in the service of others.

Premiered June 24, 2018 by the First Congregational Church of Walpole Choir, Keane Southard-director and pianist.

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Text

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me bring love.
Where there is offence, let me bring pardon.
Where there is discord, let me bring union.
Where there is error, let me bring truth.
Where there is doubt, let me bring faith.
Where there is despair, let me bring hope.
Where there is darkness, let me bring your light.
Where there is sadness, let me bring joy.
O Master, let me not seek as much
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love,
for it is in giving that one receives,
it is in self-forgetting that one finds,
it is in pardoning that one is pardoned,
it is in dying that one is raised to eternal life.