11/9/2022 0 Comments Prayer of serenityThe 8th-century Indian Buddhist scholar Shantideva of the ancient Nalanda University suggested: įriedrich Schiller advocated the first part in 1801: "Blessed is he, who has learned to bear what he cannot change, and to give up with dignity, what he cannot save." Spurious attributions Our bodies are not up to us, nor are our possessions, our reputations, or our public offices, or, that is, whatever is not our own doing." Our opinions are up to us, and our impulses, desires, aversions-in short, whatever is our own doing. Some things are up to us and some things are not up to us. The prayer has also been falsely attributed to a variety of other authors.Įpictetus wrote: "Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens. Numerous statements of more or less similar sentiments by other authors have been identified and it is likely that more will be found. Though Niebuhr's daughter was once quoted suggesting that Niebuhr first wrote the prayer for the 1943 sermon at the Heath Evangelical Union Church, there is convincing documentary evidence that he had used it much earlier. Shapiro had first raised doubts about, but was later instrumental in confirming Niebuhr's authorship. The Serenity Prayer will be listed under Niebuhr’s name in the next edition of the Yale Book of Quotations, whose author Fred R. His daughter, Elisabeth Sifton, thought that Niebuhr had first written it in 1943, : 277 while Niebuhr's wife Ursula believed it had been written in 1941 or '42, adding that it may have been used in prayers as early as 1934. I honestly do believe that I wrote it myself." He confirmed this in 1967. In 1950, in response to questions about the already quite widely known prayer's provenance, Niebuhr wrote that the prayer "may have been spooking around for years, even centuries, but I don't think so. The Federal Council of Churches (NCC) included the prayer in a book for army chaplains and servicemen in 1944 and the USO circulated the prayer (with Niebuhr's permission) to soldiers on printed cards during World War II. Various other authors also cited Niebuhr as the source of the prayer from 1937 on. A 1937 Christian student publication attributed the prayer to Niebuhr in the following form, which matches the other earliest published forms in requesting "courage to change" before petitioning for serenity:įather, give us courage to change what must be altered, serenity to accept what cannot be helped, and the insight to know the one from the other. The earliest printed reference, in 1936, mentions that during a speech, a Miss Mildred Pinkerton "quotes the prayer," as if to indicate it was already in a circulation known to the reporter, or that Pinkerton relayed it as a quote, without mentioning its authorship. Wygal was a longtime YWCA official and all early recorded usages were from women involved in volunteer or educational activities connected to the YWCA. O God, give us the serenity to accept what cannot be changed, the courage to change what can be changed, and the wisdom to know the one from the other. In 1940, Wygal included the following form of the prayer in a book on worship, attributing it to Niebuhr: Several versions of the prayer then appeared in newspaper articles in the early 1930s written by, or reporting on talks given by, Wygal. The earliest recorded reference to the prayer is a diary entry from 1932 by Winnifred Crane Wygal, a pupil and collaborator of Reinhold Niebuhr, quoting the prayer and attributing it to Niebuhr. God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,Īnd Wisdom to know the difference. Įarly versions of the prayer are given no title, but by 1955, it was being called the Serenity Prayer in publications of Alcoholics Anonymous. It also appeared in a sermon of Niebuhr's in the 1944 Book of Prayers and Services for the Armed Forces, while Niebuhr first published it in 1951 in a magazine column. Niebuhr used it in a 1943 sermon at Heath Evangelical Union Church in Heath, Massachusetts. The prayer spread rapidly, often without attribution to Niebuhr, through church groups in the 1930s and 1940s and was adopted and popularized by Alcoholics Anonymous and other twelve-step programs. Niebuhr composed the prayer in 1932–1933. Niebuhr's prayer originally asked for courage first, and specifically for changing things that must be changed, not things that simply can be changed:įather, give us courage to change what must be altered, serenity to accept what cannot be helped, and the insight to know the one from the other. God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
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