1 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.

Refrain:
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.

2 Make me a channel of your peace.
Where there's despair in life, let me bring hope;
where there is darkness, let me bring your light;
and where there's sadness, ever joy. Refrain

3 Make me a channel of your peace.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
in giving to all people, we receive,
and in dying that we're born to eternal life.

Scripture References:
all st. = Phil. 2:12-13
ref. = Acts. 20:35

This text is based on a well-known prayer attributed to Francis of Assisi (PHH 431), founder of the Franciscan Order. Originally in Latin, the prayer appeared in various nineteenth¬ century documents (the English translation begins "Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace").

Like 544, "Make Me a Channel" is a fervent, personal prayer but one that is overtly social in its application. In it the believer asks to be a vehicle of divine peace and biblical shalom, one through whom God works "to will and to act according to his good purpose" (Phil. 2:12b-13). The fruit of the Spirit, including love, faith, hope, and joy, will be the channel of reconciliation and peace to a world troubled by hatred, doubt, despair, and sadness. The refrain's theme is characteristic of Francis's Christian ministry and reflects the meaning of Jesus' words quoted by Luke in Acts 20:35, "It is more blessed to give than to receive."

The versification and melody of this setting are the work of Johann Sebastian Temple (b. Pretoria, Transvaal, South Africa, 1928), a member of the Franciscan Order. By the time he was fifteen, Temple had published a novel and two books of poems in Afrikaans. He studied anthropology at the University of South Africa and pre-Renaissance art in Italy. After living in England for six years, he became a monk in a yoga monastery in India. When he moved to the United States, he entered the Franciscan Order. Temple is a singer and a songwriter who has recorded his songs on twelve albums.

Liturgical Use:
Many occasions of worship that focus on the Christian virtues that Francis enumerates; as a sung part of other spoken prayers at the beginning or end of the congregational prayer.

--Psalter Hymnal Handbook