Teresa’s peace prayer finds echo at centenary celebration

NEW DELHI - “Where there is hatred, let me sow love…”, the prayer Mother Teresa recited daily, found mention Saturday in the speeches of President Pratibha Patil and other dignitaries at a function here celebrating her birth centenary.

Patil and Uttarakhand Governor Margaret Alva quoted the prayer almost fully in their prepared texts.

Sister Prema, mother general of the Missionaries of Charity (the order founded by Mother Teresa), also quoted from the famous prayer, written by Saint Francis of Assisi.

The prayer starts “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love, where there is injury, pardon”. It goes on to urge “where there is despair, hope and where there is sadness, joy”.

It ends with “For it is in giving that we receive, it is pardoning, that we are pardoned and it it is in dying that we are born to eternal life”.

St Francis’ prayer has been praised by leaders of different periods and nations, including Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela.

Even Russian revolutionary leader Vladmir Lenin, who came to know about the prayer in his last days, is reported to have appreciated its sentiments.