Lord, Make Me An Instrument

A reflective setting for solo voice and piano of the lovely anonymous text often called the Prayer of Saint Francis. There is no evidence that St. Francis of Assisi wrote it; its first appearance was in a spiritual magazine called La Clochette (The Little Bell), published in Paris in 1912 . The prayer became well known and associated with the saint in the years following; the first printed English version appeared in a Quaker magazine in 1927. In this setting I took the liberty of adding two words ("to ourselves") to the prayer, towards the end: "... for it is in dying to ourselves that we are born to eternal life." They fit quite naturally into the flow of the music and, I believe, are certainly in keeping with the teachings of St. Francis. For more information about my works visit www.johnnewellmusic.com.