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.
CHORUS:
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.
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.
(Chorus only after first 2 verses)
Make me a channel of Your peace;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
In giving of ourselves that we receive,
And in dying that we’re born to eternal life.
Based on the prayer attributed (perhaps incorrectly) to St. Francis, this song by Sebastian Temple is his most famous. It is usually sung in Royal Albert Hall, London, at the annual November Remembrance Day service, as it is the anthem of the Royal British Legion. It was also used at Princess Diana’s funeral. Perhaps the prayerful song has become even more well-known in recent years because of its use in the famous Canadian musical, COME FROM AWAY . In the play, it is sung by the multi-faith group of airline passengers stranded in Gander, Newfoundland, in September 2001, as they gather for worship and prayer.
Sebastian Temple (1928-1997) was a Folk Mass composer who grew up in South Africa and moved to London, England, to work on BBC broadcasts connected to his home country. He converted to Roman Catholicism only after moving to America in 1958, where he joined the Franciscan Third Order.
