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The Origin of our Serenity
Prayer
As published in August/September 1992
BOX-459
(Reprinted with permission)
For many
years, long after the Serenity
Prayer became attached to the very
fabric of the Fellowship's life and
thought, its exact origin, its
actual author, have played a
tantalizing game of hide and seek
with researchers, both in and out of
A.A. The facts of how it came to be
used by A.A. a half century ago are
much easier to pinpoint.
Early in 1942, writes
Bill W., in A.A. Comes of Age, a New
York member, Jack, brought to
everyone's attention a caption in a
routine New York Herald Tribune
obituary that read:
"God
grant us the serenity to accept the
things we cannot change,
courage to change the things we can,
and wisdom to know the
difference."
Everyone in A.A.'s
burgeoning office on Manhattan's
Vesey Street was struck by the power
and wisdom contained in the prayer's
thoughts. "Never had we seen so
much A.A. in so few words,"
Bill writes. Someone suggested that
the prayer be printed on a small,
wallet-sized card, to be included in
every piece of outgoing mail. Ruth
Hock, the Fellowship's first (and
nonalcoholic) secretary, contacted
Henry S., a Washington D.C. member,
and a professional printer, asking
him what it would cost to order a
bulk printing.
Henry's enthusiastic
response was to print 500 copies of
the prayer, with the remark:
"Incidentally, I am only a heel
when I'm drunk .. . so naturally,
there could be no charge for
anything of this nature."
"With amazing
speed," writes Bill, "the
Serenity Prayer came into general
use and took its place alongside our
two other favorites, the Lord's
Prayer and the Prayer of St.
Francis."
Thus did the
"accidental" noticing of
an unattributed prayer, printed
alongside a simple obituary of an
unknown individual, open the way
toward the prayer's daily use by
thousands upon thousands of A.A.s
worldwide.
But despite years of
research by numerous individuals,
the exact origin of the prayer is
shrouded in overlays of history,
even mystery. Moreover, every time a
researcher appears to uncover the
definitive source, another one crops
up to refute the former's claim, at
the same time that it raises new,
intriguing facts. What is undisputed
is the claim of authorship by the
theologian Dr. Rheinhold Niebuhr,
who recounted to interviewers on
several occasions that he had
written the prayer as a "tag
line" to a sermon he had
delivered on Practical Christianity.
Yet even Dr. Niebuhr added at least
a touch of doubt to his claim, when
he told one interviewer, "Of
course, it may have been spooking
around for years, even centuries,
but I don't think so. I honestly do
believe that I wrote it
myself." |
Early in
World War II, with Dr. Niebuhr's
permission, the prayer was printed
on cards and distributed to the
troops by the U.S.O. By then it had
also been reprinted by the National
Council of Churches, as well as
Alcoholics Anonymous.
 Dr. Niebuhr was quite
accurate in suggesting that the
prayer may have been "spooking
around" for centuries. "No
one can tell for sure who first
wrote the Serenity Prayer,"
writes Bill in A.A. Comes of Age.
"Some say it came from the
early Greeks; others think it was
from the pen of an anonymous English
poet; still others claim it was
written by an American Naval
officer... ." Other
attributions have gone as far afield
as ancient Sanskrit texts,
Aristotle, St. Augustine, St. Thomas
Aquinas and Spinoza. One A.A. member
came across the Roman philosopher
Cicero's Six Mistakes of Man, one of
which reads: "The tendency to
worry about things that cannot be
changed or corrected."
No one has actually
found the prayer's text among the
writings of these alleged, original
sources. What are probably truly
ancient, as with the above quote
from Cicero, are the prayer's themes
of acceptance, courage to change
what can be changed and the free
letting go of what is out of one's
ability to change.
The search for
pinpointing origins of the prayer
has been like the peeling of an
onion. For example, in July 1964,
the A.A. Grapevine received a
clipping of an article that had
appeared in the Paris Herald
Tribune, by the paper's
correspondent in Koblenz, then in
West Germany. "In a rather
dreary hall of a converted hotel,
overlooking the Rhine at Koblenz,"
the correspondent wrote, is a tablet
inscribed with the following words:
"God
give me the detachment to accept
those things I cannot alter;
the courage to alter those things I
can alter;
and the wisdom to distinguish the
one thing from the other."
These words were
attributed, the correspondent wrote,
to an 18th century pietist,
Friedrich Oetinger (1702-1782).
Moreover, the plaque was affixed to
a wall in a hall where modern day
troops and company com-manders of
the new German army were trained
"in the principles of
management and . . . behavior of the
soldier citizen in a democratic
state."
Here, at last, thought
A.A. researchers, was concrete
evidence-quote, author, date-of the
Serenity Prayer's original source.
That conviction went unchallenged
for fifteen years. Then in 1979 came
material, shared with G.S.O.'s Beth
K., by Peter T., of Berlin. Peter's
research threw the authenticity of
18th century authorship out the
window. But it also added more
tantalizing facts about the plaque's
origin.
"The first form of
the prayer," Beth wrote back,
originated with Boethius, the Roman
philosopher (480-524 A.D.), and
author of the book, Consolations of
Philosophy. The prayer's thoughts
were used from then on by
"religious-like people who had
to suffer first by the English,
later the Prussian puritans . . .
then the Pietists from southwest
Germany . . . then A.A.s . . . and
through them, the West Germans after
the Second World War."
Moreover, Beth
continued, after the war, a north
German University professor, Dr.
Theodor Wilhelm, who had started a
revival of spiritual life in West
Germany, had acquired the
"little prayer" from
Canadian soldiers. He had written a
book in which he had included the
prayer, without attribution, but
which resulted in the prayer's
appearance in many different places,
such as army officer's halls,
schools and other institutions. The
professor's nom de plume? Friedrich
Oetinger, the 18th century pietist!
Wilhelm had apparently selected the
pseudonym Oetinger out of admiration
of his south German forebears.
Back in 1957, another
G.S.O. staff member, Anita R.,
browsing in a New York bookstore,
came upon a beautifully bordered
card, on which was printed:
"Almighty
God, our Heavenly Father,
give us Serenity to accept what
cannot be changed,
Courage to change what should be
changed,
and Wisdom to know the one from the
other;
through Jesus Christ, our
Lord."
The card, which came
from a bookshop in England, called
it the "General's Prayer,"
dating it back to the fourteenth
century! There are still other
claims, and no doubt more
unearthings will continue for years
to come. In any event, Mrs. Reinhold
Niebuhr told an interviewer that her
husband was definitely the prayer's
author, that she had seen the piece
of paper on which he had written it,
and that her husband-now that there
were numerous variations of wording
-"used and preferred" the
following form:
"God,
give us grace to accept with
serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things which
should be changed,
and the wisdom to distinguish the
one from the other."
While all of these
searchings are intriguing,
challenging, even mysterious, they
pale in significance when compared
to the fact that, for fifty years,
the prayer has become so deeply
imbedded into the heart and soul of
A.A. thinking, living, as well as
its philosophy, that one could
almost believe that the prayer
originated in the A.A. experience
itself.
Bill made this very
point years ago, in thanking an A.A.
friend for the plaque upon which the
prayer was inscribed: "In
creating A.A., the Serenity Prayer
has been a most valuable building
block-indeed a corner-stone."
And speaking of
cornerstones, and mysteries and
"coincidences"-the
building where G.S.O. is now located
borders on a stretch of New York
City's 120th St., between Riverside
Drive and Broadway (where the Union
Theological Seminary is situated).
It's called Reinhold Niebuhr Place.
(A long version of the Prayer)
God grant me the
SERENITY to
accept the things I cannot change;
COURAGE to change the things I can;
and WISDOM to know the difference.
Living one day at a time;
enjoying one moment at a time;
accepting hardships as the pathway
to peace;
taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it:
Trusting that He will make all
things
right if I surrender to His Will;
that I may be reasonably happy in
this life
and supremely happy with Him forever
in the next.
(Another long version of the Prayer
from Ireland)
God take and
receive my liberty,
my memory, my understanding and
will,
All that I am and have He has given
me
God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot
change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference
Living one day at a time
Enjoying one moment at a time
Accepting hardships as the pathway
to peace
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is,
Not as I would have it
Trusting that He will make all
things right
If I surrender to his will
That I may be reasonably happy in
this life
and supremely happy in the next.
 By
Reinhold Neibuhr
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The Serenity Prayer
God
Saying this word I am admitting
the existence of a Consciousness or
Higher Power that is greater than I.
grant
Saying this second word, I am
admitting that this Consciousness or
Higher Power is able to bestow and give to
me and to others.
me
I am asking something for myself.
Holy books say that I ask sincerely,
it shall be given. It is not wrong to ask
for improving myself. For with
the improvement of my character, both I
and people around me will be
happier, and my relationships will have a
better chance to improve.
serenity
I am asking for calmness,
composure and inner peace in my life which
will enable me to transcend my ego, to
think straight, and to govern
myself properly.
to
accept
I am resigning myself to
conditions as they are right now. I am
living
in the now, the present moment.
the things I
acknowledge my tragedy, death, suffering,
illness, and pain, as part of
my life, neither good nor bad. I accept my
humanness and fallibility. I am
accepting my lot in life as it is. Until I
have the courage to change any part
of my life I don't like, I must accept it,
without doing so grudgingly.
I
cannot
I can't prevent these events or
conditions from happening to me or
to
change
others.
courage
A quality which enables me to
deal with the problems and realities of
life
without reliance on alcohol or drugs. A
determination to stand my ground
and "slug it out" with all
issues, pleasant or otherwise, that might
return
me to drinking or using. A strength of my
spirit to face and handle the
negative. Fearlessness in the practice of
faith, humility, and honesty.
to change In
facing these negatives directly and
honestly, I am asking for myself and
my life conditions to be different for me.
I am taking an active part in this
change.
the things I
am asking for help to make the right
decisions. Everything is not the way
I
can,
I would like it to be in my life.
I must continue to face reality and
constantly
work toward my continued growth and
progress.
and
I am asking for the ability to
rise above my ego and form sound
judgements
wisdom, about
myself and my life. I then use my ability
to ask for guidance from
myself, others, and a Higher Power.
to
know I
want to be able to understand clearly
truths of fact. I want to see things
the
differently in my life so that I
will be more aware of myself and of
others.
difference I
need to sense a definite value in loving
over being selfish.
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The
Serenity Prayer
No better
statement of our need to reestablish
balance in our lives can be
found than in
the Serenity Prayer.
"God
grant me the serenity."
Serenity
means that I no longer recoil from the
past, live in jeopardy
because of my
present behavior, or worry about the
unknown future. I seek
regular times
to re-create myself and I avoid those
times of depletion that
make me
vulnerable to despair and to old
self-destructive patterns.
"to
accept the things I cannot change."
Accepting
change means that I do not cause
suffering for myself by clinging
to that which
no longer exists. All that I can count on
is that nothing will
be
stable--except how I respond to the
transforming cycles in my life of
birth,
growth, and death.
"the
courage to change the things I
can..."
Giving up my
attempts to control outcomes does not
require that I give up my
boundaries or
my best efforts. It does mean my most
honest appraisal of the
limits of
what I can do.
"and
the wisdom to know the difference."
Wisdom
becomes the never forgotten recognition
of all those times when it
seemed there
was no way out, and new paths opened up
like miracles in my
life.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
from "A
Gentle Path through the Twelve
Steps" by Patrick Carnes, Ph.D.
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