Prayer · Strength & Hope
The Serenity Prayer in Full: What It Means and Who Wrote It
God, grant me the serenity: the prayer in full, what each line means, who wrote it, and why AA and so many Catholics pray it
The Serenity Prayer is the short prayer, attributed to Reinhold Niebuhr, that asks God for serenity, courage and wisdom.
God, grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time,
enjoying one moment at a time,
accepting hardship as a pathway to peace.
Amen.
It first appeared in the early 1930s, and Alcoholics Anonymous took it up in 1941. Catholics pray it too, because each of its petitions echoes the Gospel.
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What the Serenity Prayer means, line by line
3 min readThe prayer is one request in three parts, and then a way of living it.
The prayer is one request in three parts, and then a way of living it. It does not ask for a calm mood. It asks God for three gifts, and it asks for them because we cannot make them ourselves.
“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change.” Serenity is not indifference. Accepting a diagnosis, a death, a past that cannot be undone, or another person’s choices does not mean they stop hurting. It means you stop arguing with what has already happened, so that your strength goes where it can do some good. The first word matters: grant. Serenity is received, not manufactured. Jesus himself prayed this way in the garden the night before he died: “Father, if thou wilt, remove this chalice from me: but yet not my will, but thine be done” (Luke 22:42, Douay-Rheims). He asked first for the cup to pass, and only then gave himself to the Father’s will. Accepting is never the same as not asking.
“The courage to change the things I can.” The second gift is the opposite of resignation. Some things are ours to change: a habit, an apology we owe, a decision we keep putting off, the next hour. The Church calls the strength for this fortitude, the virtue that “ensures firmness in difficulties and constancy in the pursuit of the good” (CCC 1808).
“And the wisdom to know the difference.” This is the hinge of the whole prayer, and the hardest part of it. The Church would call it prudence, the virtue that helps us “discern our true good in every circumstance” (CCC 1806), and beyond that, the gifts of the Holy Spirit (wisdom, counsel and fortitude among them), which “complete and perfect the virtues” (CCC 1831). Scripture says plainly where to find it: “if any of you want wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men abundantly, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him” (James 1:5, Douay-Rheims).
“Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time.” These lines turn the three petitions into a way of living. They are the Sermon on the Mount in a phrase: “Be not therefore solicitous for tomorrow; for the morrow will be solicitous for itself. Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof” (Matthew 6:34, Douay-Rheims). The Our Father asks for bread for “this day,” and the Catechism calls that phrase “an expression of trust taught us by the Lord” (CCC 2836). Christ, it says, does not invite us to idleness but “wants to relieve us from nagging worry and preoccupation” (CCC 2830). Only today has to be carried today.
“Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace.” Not hardship as good in itself, but hardship as a road that can lead somewhere. St. Paul wrote that “tribulation worketh patience; and patience trial; and trial hope” (Romans 5:3–4, Douay-Rheims). The peace at the end is not the world’s: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, do I give unto you” (John 14:27, Douay-Rheims).
Grammatically, these last three lines carry on the request: grant me serenity, courage and wisdom, so that I can live this way. They are still asked of God, not promised by us. They come from a longer version of the prayer, and they are not Niebuhr’s; there is more on that further on.
Who wrote the Serenity Prayer? Reinhold Niebuhr, and a long debate
3 min readThe prayer is attributed to Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971), an American Protestant theologian and pastor who taught for more than thirty years at Union Theological Seminary in New York.
The prayer is attributed to Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971), an American Protestant theologian and pastor who taught for more than thirty years at Union Theological Seminary in New York. The evidence for him is strong, but scholars argued over it for years, and one of his students is part of the answer.
The earliest traces, 1932–1940. The first record is a diary entry of October 31, 1932, by Winnifred Wygal, a national staff member of the YWCA who had studied with Niebuhr. She noted, under his initials, a line about the serenity to accept what cannot be helped and the courage to change what must be altered. Only two gifts so far, and a statement rather than a prayer. In March 1933 Wygal printed a three-part prayer in the YWCA magazine The Woman’s Press, without a name, asking for courage, serenity and “insight to know the one from the other”; a California newspaper reprinted it that same month. By 1937 a Christian student newsletter was attributing the prayer to Niebuhr, and Wygal’s own 1940 book on worship credited it to him by name.
Niebuhr’s own wording. He prayed it in the plural, as a pastor for his people. His daughter, Elisabeth Sifton, gave his form as beginning “God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed.” It goes on to ask for courage to change what should be changed, and for wisdom to tell the one from the other. His family remembered him using it in 1943 at a small church in Heath, Massachusetts, and in 1944 it appeared in a book of prayers for the American armed forces. During the war it was also printed on cards for American soldiers.
The debate. In 2008 Fred R. Shapiro, editor of The Yale Book of Quotations, argued from early printings that Niebuhr probably did not originate the prayer. The next year, after Stephen Goranson, a researcher at the Duke University library, found the 1937 newsletter, Shapiro changed his view and put the likelihood of Niebuhr’s authorship at about 80 percent. In 2014, with Wygal’s diary in hand, he wrote that the new evidence established Niebuhr’s authorship “to a high degree of confidence.” In the 2021 edition of the Yale book he went one step further, and named Wygal as the person who most likely joined phrases taken from Niebuhr into one prayer. Teacher and student, then. The honest answer is that the heart of the prayer is very probably Niebuhr’s, and that Winnifred Wygal was the first to shape it into three petitions and put it into print.
Niebuhr himself allowed that something like it might have circulated for centuries, but in 1950 he added: “I honestly do believe that I wrote it myself.”
Who did not write it. Over the years the prayer has been credited to St. Francis of Assisi, St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, Boethius and an eighteenth-century German pietist, Friedrich Oetinger. None of these holds up; the Oetinger version came from a German translation published in 1951 under a pen name. The idea behind it is old, though. The handbook of the Stoic teacher Epictetus, from the early second century, opens by separating what is in our power from what is not. What the prayer adds is that it takes that distinction to God and asks him for the strength to live it.
The Serenity Prayer and AA: how it reached Alcoholics Anonymous
2 min readIn 1941 an early member of Alcoholics Anonymous saw the prayer in a notice in the New York Herald Tribune, printed without an author, in the first person: “God grant me…” He brought it to the small AA office in New York.
In 1941 an early member of Alcoholics Anonymous saw the prayer in a notice in the New York Herald Tribune, printed without an author, in the first person: “God grant me…” He brought it to the small AA office in New York. Bill W. and the staff felt that it suited the fellowship, and in June 1941 the office had it printed on cards for members to carry. At first it was known simply as “the AA prayer”; by the end of the decade people called it the Serenity Prayer.
When AA’s magazine, the Grapevine, traced the prayer to Niebuhr in 1950, he did not mind the changes from his own wording. In some ways, he said, their version was better. His wife later wrote that AA had used it widely with his permission.
Today it is said at many twelve-step meetings, often with everyone standing or holding hands, and it is printed on coins and cards and hangs on kitchen walls. The prayer does not belong to any one group, but for many people this is where they first learned it.
In recovery it is easy to see why. I cannot change what has already happened. Today I can choose not to take the first drink, ask for help, go back to the meeting, make amends for a wrong I did. And the people who love someone caught in an addiction pray it too: I cannot change another person; I can take care of myself, set limits with love, and entrust that person to God, who loves them even more than I do.
It is a prayer, not a treatment. It does not replace a group, a sponsor, a doctor or a priest, and it does not compete with them. It asks God for the grace to do the next right thing, which is what all of them are trying to help you do.
The full Serenity Prayer: the short version and the long version
2 min readThere are two forms in common use, which is why you may have seen a longer “full version.”
There are two forms in common use, which is why you may have seen a longer “full version.”
The short form is the three petitions alone. This is the form AA prints (with an Amen added here), a little shorter than the one at the top of the page, with no “the” before courage and wisdom:
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.
Amen.
The long version continues after the petitions. Its first three lines are the ones prayed at the top of this page: “Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time, accepting hardship as a pathway to peace.” It then goes on to ask for the grace to accept a sinful world as Jesus did, the way it really is; to trust that God will set things right for those who give themselves to his will; and, in its last line, to be “reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him forever in the next.”
Nobody knows who wrote these extra lines. They are not in any known printing of the 1930s and 1940s, and Niebuhr’s daughter said such additions are not his in message or tone. So the short form is the one to call Niebuhr’s; the long version is a later prayer built on it. Many people pray the longer form with great love, and there is nothing in it a Christian cannot pray. It is simply better not to put Niebuhr’s name under it.
In Spanish the prayer is la oración de la serenidad; in Portuguese, a oração da serenidade.
Is the Serenity Prayer Catholic? Can Catholics pray it?
2 min read
Yes. It was written by a Protestant theologian and is not part of the Church’s liturgy, but Catholics pray it freely, and Catholic parishes and dioceses print it among their prayers, because every line of it is addressed to God and every petition has its roots in Scripture.
The prayer’s three requests are the Gospel in miniature. Accepting what cannot be changed is the prayer of Gethsemane, “not my will, but thine be done” (Luke 22:42). Refusing to be eaten up by worry is St. Paul’s counsel from prison: “Be nothing solicitous; but in every thing, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your petitions be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasseth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6–7, Douay-Rheims). And handing over the future is what the Catechism calls a sound Christian attitude: “putting oneself confidently into the hands of Providence” (CCC 2115).
So the Serenity Prayer fits easily into a Catholic life. It does not replace the Our Father, which already asks for God’s will to be done and for bread for this day only; it is a small door into the same trust. Some pray it after the Our Father, or at the end of an evening examination of conscience, when the day shows clearly what could have been changed and what could not. St. Peter’s line is its shortest summary: “Casting all your care upon him, for he hath care of you” (1 Peter 5:7, Douay-Rheims).
If you want a prayer from the Catholic tradition in the same spirit, the Peace Prayer of St. Francis (“Lord, make me an instrument of your peace”) is often printed beside it, and the prayer of surrender and trust hands over what cannot be carried alone.
How to pray the Serenity Prayer: in worry, in illness, for someone you love
3 min readThe prayer is short enough to say without noticing.
Slowly, with something in mind. The prayer is short enough to say without noticing. Before you begin, name one thing that is weighing on you. Then, as you pray, ask honestly which side of the line it falls on: something to accept, or something to change. Often it is both: you cannot change the situation, but you can change the next step.
In the morning. Many people say it on waking, before the day has a chance to run ahead. One day at a time starts there.
In illness. Asking to be healed and asking for serenity are not in conflict. Pray for healing with all your heart, and ask for the serenity to live today well, whatever comes.
In grief. A death is the hardest of the things we cannot change. Accepting it does not mean missing them less. Pray it one day at a time, and commend the one you lost to God by name.
In a hard relationship. You cannot change another person. You can change how you answer, what you allow, and how you pray for them. Say their name when you pray. Sometimes serenity comes before the solution.
For someone you love. You can pray it for another person: “God, grant N. the serenity to accept the things he (she) cannot change, the courage to change the things he (she) can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” Say their name where the N. is. Parents, spouses and friends of someone who is struggling often pray it this way, whether or not that person has asked for help yet.
A prayer of our own, in the same spirit, for the end of a hard day:
Lord, you know what I could not change today,
and what you were asking me to change.
Take the first into your hands,
forgive me where I failed the second,
and give me light tomorrow to tell them apart, and courage for what is mine to do.
Keep me in your peace for this one night.
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Serenity Prayer is also in the AngelGuard app, among the prayers for anxiety and peace. There it is read aloud in about thirty seconds, so you can pray it with a voice beside you on the days your own words run out. For a longer prayer when the mind will not settle, there is a prayer for peace of mind; for the courage half of the prayer on its own, a prayer for courage.
Questions
What is the Serenity Prayer?
A short Christian prayer, attributed to the American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, that asks God for three gifts: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” It first appeared in the early 1930s, and Alcoholics Anonymous has prayed it since 1941.
What is the full version of the Serenity Prayer?
The short form is the three petitions. A longer version adds: “Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time, accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,” and goes on to ask for trust in God’s will and for happiness with him in the next life. The author of the added lines is unknown; they are not Niebuhr’s.
Who wrote the Serenity Prayer?
Very probably Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971), an American Protestant theologian. The earliest record is a 1932 diary note by his student Winnifred Wygal, who printed the first known version in 1933 and named Niebuhr as its author in a 1940 book. The quotation scholar Fred Shapiro, who once doubted Niebuhr’s authorship, concluded in 2014 that the words came from Niebuhr, and in 2021 credited Wygal with first joining them into the prayer as printed.
What is the AA version of the Serenity Prayer?
AA prints the short form: “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.” An early member found it in a New York newspaper in 1941, and the AA office printed it on cards because it fit the way members try to live, one day at a time. It has been said at meetings ever since, with Niebuhr’s permission.
Is the Serenity Prayer in the Bible?
No. It was written in the 1930s, not taken from the Bible, but its lines echo Scripture: Christ’s prayer in Gethsemane, “not my will, but thine be done” (Luke 22:42); “Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof” (Matthew 6:34); and “if any of you want wisdom, let him ask of God” (James 1:5).
Is the Serenity Prayer Catholic?
Not by origin: it was written by a Protestant theologian and is not a liturgical prayer. But Catholics pray it freely and many parishes print it, because it is addressed to God and asks for gifts the Church teaches us to ask for: acceptance of God’s will, fortitude and wisdom.
What does the Serenity Prayer mean?
It asks God for peace about what is out of our hands, strength to act on what is in them, and the wisdom to tell the two apart. Accepting is not giving up: Jesus asked the Father for the cup to pass before he said “thy will be done.”
Did St. Francis write the Serenity Prayer?
No. It is sometimes credited to St. Francis of Assisi, and also to St. Augustine and others, but it dates from the 1930s and is attributed to Reinhold Niebuhr. The prayer linked to St. Francis is a different one, the Peace Prayer: “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.”
Can I pray the Serenity Prayer for someone else?
Yes. Put their name in it: “God, grant N. the serenity to accept the things he (she) cannot change, the courage to change the things he (she) can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” Parents, spouses and friends of someone who is struggling often pray it this way.
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