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Summary
- The Serenity Prayer asks for serenity to accept what cannot be changed, courage to change what can, and wisdom to know the difference; Alcoholics Anonymous took it up in 1941 from a notice in the New York Herald Tribune.
- The prayer is usually credited to the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, who said he wrote it, but versions were printed in newspapers in the 1930s and its authorship is still argued.
- Older prayers for peace are quoted from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer (“For Quiet Confidence,” the Evening Prayer collect for peace, “At Night”), The Imitation of Christ and the Orthodox Great Litany.
- Short prayers cover racing thoughts at night, the morning, a named worry, overload, anger, forgiveness, an old mistake, a decision and loneliness.
- In the New Testament peace is God’s gift: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you” (John 14:27), and “the peace of God, which passeth all understanding” (Philippians 4:7).
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (1611), text of Project Gutenberg eBook no. 10 (Numbers 6:24–26; Psalm 4:8; 42:5; 46:10; 143:8; Isaiah 26:3; 30:15; Matthew 11:28; Mark 4:39; John 14:27; 16:33; Ephesians 4:26; Philippians 4:6–7; 2 Thessalonians 3:16). https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10
- The Book of Common Prayer (Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S.A.), Standard Book of 1928. Evening Prayer, “A Collect for Peace,” p. 31; Family Prayer, “At Night,” pp. 594–595, and “For Quiet Confidence,” p. 595. PDF facsimile: https://www.artisticdailyprayers.org/uploads/3/0/1/6/30164961/bcp1928std.pdf
- Thomas à Kempis. The Imitation of Christ, Book 3, chapter 23. Translated by William Benham. Project Gutenberg eBook no. 1653. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1653
- Hapgood, Isabel Florence, trans. Service Book of the Holy Orthodox-Catholic Apostolic (Greco-Russian) Church. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 1906. Great Vespers, the Great Litany, p. 5. https://www.ponomar.net/data/hapgood.pdf
- Alcoholics Anonymous, General Service Office. “Origin of the Serenity Prayer: A Historical Paper” (SMF-129). https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/literature/assets/smf-129_en.pdf
- Shapiro, Fred R. “Who Wrote the Serenity Prayer?” Yale Alumni Magazine, July/August 2008, with replies. https://archives.yalealumnimagazine.com/issues/2008_07/serenity.html
- Orthodox Church in America. “Repose of Venerable Seraphim, Wonderworker of Sarov.” https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2000/01/02/100008-repose-of-venerable-seraphim-wonderworker-of-sarov
- 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. https://988lifeline.org/
- Samaritans. “Contact a Samaritan.” https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/contact-samaritan/
- Fond podderzhki detey, Russian helpline for children, teenagers and parents, 8 800 2000 122. https://fond-detyam.ru/
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