HYMN OF THE MONTH FOR JULY

Lord, Make Us Servants of Your Peace
The Hymnal 1982 No. 593

1 Lord, make us servants of your peace:
where there is hate, may we sow love;
where there is hurt, may we forgive;
where there is strife, may we make one.
3 Jesus, our Lord, may we not seek
to be consoled, but to console,
nor look to understanding hearts,
but look for hearts to understand.
2 Where all is doubt, may we sow faith;
where all is gloom, may we sow hope;
where all is night, may we sow light;
where all is tears, may we sow joy.
4 May we not look for love’s return,
but seek to love unselfishly,
for in our giving we receive,
and in forgiving are forgiven.
 5 Dying, we live, and are reborn
through death’s dark night to endless day;
Lord, make us servants of your peace,
to wake at last in heaven’s light.
This hymn, by Scottish Roman Catholic Jesuit theologian priest James Quinn (1919-2010), is a paraphrase of a prayer attributed to Saint Francis of Assisi.  Most of us are familiar with the prayer, which can be found in the Book of Common Prayer, p. 833, No. 62:
            Lord, make us instruments of your peace.  Where there is hatred, let us 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.  Grant that we 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.  Amen
 Lovely as the prayer is, it probably was not written by Saint Francis. It is not found in any of his writings, and it can be traced back only to 1912, when it was published in a French spiritual magazine. The Franciscan Order does not include it in the official prayers of Saint Francis.
Quinn was a consultant for the Roman Catholic Church’s International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL), which came about as a result of Vatican II.  As we sing this hymn, we immediately recognize the prayer on which it is based, and Quinn’s paraphrase is as beautiful as the prayer itself. Other hymns by Quinn in our Hymnal 1982 are To God With Gladness Sing, No. 399 (a paraphrase of Psalm 95); God Is Love, Nos. 576 and 577  (a paraphrase translation of the Latin chant, Ubi caritas); and Word of God, Come Down On Earth, No. 633.
The tune DICKINSON COLLEGE is by Lee Hastings Bristol, Jr. (1933-1979), who was the grandson of the founder of the Bristol-Myers Company. He was an organist, composer, writer,  President of Westminster Choir College, and a member of the Episcopal Church Joint Commission on Church Music. Though a layman, he was also a popular preacher. He preached four times at Westminster Abbey. Dickinson College was Bristol’s alma mater, and it was one of many colleges to give him an honorary degree.
This has often been called a prayer for peace, which it surely is, but it is more than that. The focus of the prayer is on doing the will of God. When we pray this prayer, we ask God to keep us from being self-centered, and to be focused on loving, giving, taking care of others. This, of course, is what Jesus taught. John 3:11:  For this is the message you heard from the beginning:  We should love one another. Then there is that beautiful passage from I John 4:7-12:   Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and he who loves is born of God, and  knows God. In this, the love of God was made manifest in us, that God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. If we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is made perfect in us. [The Choir has a beautiful anthem by Bill Horne on this text, and I can’t wait for the next opportunity to sing it.]
This is one of those prayers that, if we truly pay attention, is also a sermon. After all, Jesus said, “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.”  Matthew 11:16.    This sermon focuses us on a paradox:  It is in giving that we receive. Jesus often turns prevailing notions upside down. We see it over and over in the Gospels. Jesus said, “Whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.”  Matthew 16:25.   In the story of the Pharisee and the Publican [which brings to mind another wonderful anthem the Choir sings] we hear, “He that exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.”  Luke 18:10-14. In The Beatitudes, we hear, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.”  Matthew 5:7.  In the Lord’s Prayer, we ask God to forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Matthew 6:9-13. At the Gospel scene of the last judgment, when Jesus separates the sheep from the goats, we hear him say, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me,” and “Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.”  Matthew 25:31-46. It is not a matter of trying to find love, but to love; not trying to find peace, but to make peace. In this prayer, we ask God’s help to keep us focused properly — on doing for others, not on getting for ourselves.
The final stanza reminds us that it is from death that we are born to eternal life. It calls to mind a stanza from All Creatures of Our God and King, H1982 No. 400, based on the Canticle of the Sun (which we know was written by Saint Francis):  And even you, most gentle death, waiting to hush our final breath, You lead back home the child of God, for Christ our Lord that way has trod. Alleluia!
— Carolyn Parmenter, Music Director

© 2026 Carolyn Parmenter