“Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.” ~ Traditional Franciscan Saying
It’s a very old saying within Franciscan tradition, sometimes even attributed to St. Francis of Assisi himself. But what does it mean. “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace?” and why would someone ever ask for that?
What is peace?
It’s always important to know what you’re asking for, so let’s start with an understanding of what peace actually is. A long time ago, the great North African theologian and philosopher St. Augustine of Hippo defined peace as “the tranquility of order.” Augustine was talking about the quiet, calm, and stillness of how things are when they are in their right places and doing the right things, fulfilling their essential purpose and potential. That last part – purpose and potential – is important, because it means that peace isn’t just the absence of disturbance, conflict, chaos, or war. Peace is its own thing, standing apart and standing on its own. “Right places, doing right things” is also important, because it refers to what we know as justice. You may have heard the saying, “No justice, no peace,” and in this way of understanding peace, it is absolutely true. If you don’t have justice, you’re never going to get to peace.
That all said, justice is not the only cause of peace; the other is care. Care is all about doing things that help people and everything around us to fulfill purpose and potential. When it comes to caring for people, it’s all about helping people realize their purpose and potential, as well as living out that purpose and potential. Of course, the opposite of this is alienation, oppression, violence, and exploitation. You can probably see that justice and care are very much intertwined, and practically inseparable from each other. Sure, we can talk about what justice is on its own, and we can talk about what care is on its own, but when it comes to the real world we can’t talk about one without the other.
We can talk about inner peace as happening when we ourselves are realizing our own purpose and potential. Then we know that inner peace is the work of getting things in the right place and doing the right things in our lives, in line with our purpose and potential. That’s also a kind of justice. We can also understand that our inner peace is about caring for ourselves, and also receiving the care of others. Again, justice and care work together within our lives to get us to inner peace.
What does it mean to be an instrument of peace?
We have a lot of instruments in our lives. We also call them “tools” and “machines.” In all cases, an instrument does something. Understanding the original meaning of the word “instrument” in its old Latin form of instruere can help us deeply understand what it means when it comes to peace. The old Latin word instruere means to arrange, prepare, and set in order. In this way we can understand that to be an instrument of peace means to be someone who arranges peace, prepares situations for peace, and does the work of putting things in right places and doing teh right things so that peace will happen with that other essential ingredient: people caring for people.
What is God’s peace?
A person who makes peace happen is fittingly called a “peacemaker.” Jesus saw peacemakers as so singularly important that he called them out specifically in his Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Gospel of Matthew 5:9). Saying that someone will be called a child of God is super significant, because being a child of someone means being a part of a family and being cared about and cared for by that family, and having an entitlement to and inheritance in the good things the family has. When you are a child of God, and we are talking about being in the family with God, you need to have a very big mental picture to even begin to understand what all that means. On another occasion, Jesus conveyed the importance of being one of God’s children, saying: “Unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven” (Gospel of Matthew 18:3). From both teachings, we can understand that there is a Kingdom of God, a place of justice and care, and there’s also a plan of “sheer goodness” to get there (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1), and that if we want to get there we have to be children of God, and the way to become children of God is by turning away from being makers of contention and conflict, and turning toward being peacemakers.
Why would anyone ever want to be an instrument of God’s peace?
We are all unique, and each one of us has innate life purpose and potential to fulfill that purpose. There are as many reasons to be an instrument of God’s peace, and as many ways to be an instrument of God’s peace, as there are of us. You can wisely invest time in becoming more aware of yourself, more aware of your purpose in life (yes, you have an important one no matter who you are), and your potential to live out that purpose like no one else ever has, ever does, or ever will. That’s how important it is. That’s how important YOU are.
Let’s take just a quick look at a few reasons someone may want to be a peacemaker….
Recovery & Resilience
One reason you may want to be an instrument of God’s peace is that you’re so tired of contention, conflict, and chaos in your life that you yearn for an end to it. You know the pain, anger, grief, and desolation of contention, conflict, and chaos and you can’t take it anymore if life is to go on. For you, becoming an instrument of God’s peace is the way you can get the bad things out of your life and put the good things back in, in the right places doing the right things. It is the opportunity to care for yourself like never before, and…are you ready for the kicker?…care for others like you never have before. Not only will you find your own inner peace, but you can also care for others by helping them do the same work. It is a sacred gift to do so, and the paradox is that the more you have suffered from the absence of peace, the more potential you have to be an amazing peacemaker if you do it right.
Master Gardener
Another good reason to be a peacemaker is because you value the universal purpose and potential of each and every human being, and all creation. You see that all people and all things actually do have a purpose, and actually do have a potential to fulfill that purpose. You don’t just value it, you delight in it and find a bliss and joy in all the purpose and potential happening all the time. Daily life s basically walking through an immense garden of purposes and potentials everywhere, just waiting to be seen, understood, helped and cared for — in every face you see, every word spoken. Your own purpose and potential is the work of preparing for peace, arranging peace, and setting things in order for peace. Actually, the delight and joy you have for peacemaking comes from peace itself, in a profound circle that underlies everything around you. That’s a good reason to be a peacemaker.
Love & Devotion
Loving God is a reason to be a peacemaker. Peacemaking is you loving response to God. It’s the way you say “I love you!” A person who loves someone does things that help a person fulfill their purpose and potential by actually being active and participating in that fulfillment. In our Christian perspective, we understand that Jesus Christ revealed God’s purpose and potential to us, and that we are invited to be participants in the work of God. It is a job opportunity like no other, and the good news is that no previous experience is required. Actually, sometimes it seems like Jesus especially wants to hire people with no previous experience in peace or peacemaking, and it’s never too late to apply! Later hires get paid the same as the early hires (Gospel of Matthew 20:16). What a deal! Apply today!
For Today
For today, just think about whether you want to be an instrument of God’s peace. If you do, you can simply say the words: “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.” Say those words as often as helps, and expect the opportunity to happen.
Tom Delaney, O.F.S.
This article is an original work of the author and was not composed by or with artificial intelligence (AI). The author is solely responsible for the contents of this article and the opinions and perspectives expressed in the article are solely those of the author. © 2026 Thomas Delaney. All rights reserved.
photo: Sherburne County, Minnesota (USA), Thomas Delaney, 2026
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