The Serenity Prayer

God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things that should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.

Adopted by Alcoholics Anonymous, this is perhaps the best-known prayer to have originated in the 20th century. The prayer has often been attributed to philosopher Reinhold Niebuhr, who as Yale law librarian Fred Shapiro points out, “made clear that he [Niebuhr] believed he had originated it” sometime during the 1940’s.

In this month’s issue of the Yale Alumni Magazine Mr. Shapiro recounts how he conducted an exhaustive search of newspapers, magazines, religious materials, and other documents to substantiate Niebuhr’s authorship but could not prove or disprove it conclusively. This research is an excellent example of scholarship for its own sake, and the absence of a tidy answer is sadly more rule than exception.

In addition to being a source of strength for millions, the prayer is admirable in its brevity, wisdom, and beauty. If one believes that the grace of God confers serenity, then surely it’s only a small leap to believe that grace also came amazingly to the writer of these words.