On May 4, 1979, after having been elected the first woman Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Margaret Thatcher stood at the door of Number 10 Downing Street. A reporter asked, "How do you feel at this moment?"
Margaret Thatcher responded:
"Very excited, very aware of the responsibilities. Her Majesty The Queen has asked me to form a new administration and I have accepted. It is, of course, the greatest honour that can come to any citizen in a democracy. I know full well the responsibilities that await me as I enter the door of No. 10 and I'll strive unceasingly to try to fulfil the trust and confidence that the British people have placed in me and the things in which I believe. And I would just like to remember some words of St. Francis of Assisi which I think are really just particularly apt at the moment. ‘Where there is discord, may we bring harmony. Where there is error, may we bring truth. Where there is doubt, may we bring faith. And where there is despair, may we bring hope’ … and to all the British people—howsoever they voted—may I say this. Now that the Election is over, may we get together and strive to serve and strengthen the country of which we're so proud to be a part."
Thatcher was reluctant at first to reference a part of the well-known prayer but was convinced to do so by playwright and speech writer, Ronnie Millar.
Like several of the quotes and prayers that I have shared over the past few weeks, I learned something new about this prayer - it was not actually written by St Francis! It was actually first published in a French clerical magazine in 1912. The first well-known English translation dates to 1936.
Franciscan orders consider the prayer to be in the spirit of St. Francis thus it is used in daily disciplines.
The current Pope of the Catholic Church took his papal name after St. Francis because of his deep concern for the poor.
Below is the full text of the prayer.
I believe this simple prayer is an excellent guide for those of us who seek to live in hope and help us all recognize our common ground.
Prayer of St Francis
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.
O Divine Master, 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