The Serenity Prayer: Meaning, History and Full Text

Few prayers written in the last century have spread as far as the Serenity Prayer. It hangs on kitchen walls, closes recovery meetings, and is whispered in hospital corridors by people who have never set foot in a church. Its first three lines are so familiar that many people assume they are ancient. They are not. This article explains where the prayer came from, what each line asks of us, and how to make it part of your own prayer life.

The full text

The best-known form of the prayer is this:

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.

A longer version continues with petitions to live one day at a time, to accept hardship as a pathway to peace, to take the world as it is rather than as we would have it, and to trust that God will make all things right if we surrender to His will, so that we may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him in the next. The longer form is less widely quoted, but it fills out what the first three lines imply: this is a prayer about trust, not just about coping.

Who wrote the Serenity Prayer

The prayer was composed by Reinhold Niebuhr, an American Protestant theologian and pastor, most likely in the early 1930s. Niebuhr used it in sermons and in a small church in Heath, Massachusetts, where he spent summers. He did not think of it as a great work; he once said he may have been influenced by older ideas, but the wording was his.

The prayer began to circulate during the Second World War, when it was printed on cards for soldiers. In the early 1940s a member of Alcoholics Anonymous saw it in a newspaper obituary and brought it to the fellowship. AA adopted it almost immediately, and it has been part of recovery culture ever since. For many people in recovery it is the first prayer they ever said with full sincerity.

What each line means

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. Serenity here does not mean passivity or indifference. It means the inner peace that comes from recognizing the limits of our control. We cannot change the past, other people's choices, the weather, or the fact of our own mortality. Fighting these realities exhausts us. Accepting them, with God's help, frees energy for what we can actually do.

Courage to change the things I can. The second line keeps the first from becoming an excuse. Some things are within our power: our words, our habits, our willingness to apologize, our next step. Changing them requires courage, because change is uncomfortable and often involves admitting we were wrong. The prayer asks God not to remove the fear but to give courage in the midst of it.

Wisdom to know the difference. This is the hardest petition. Most of our suffering comes from confusion between the first two categories. We try to control what we cannot, and we excuse ourselves from what we can. Wisdom, in Scripture, is a gift of the Holy Spirit. It is not cleverness but clarity, the ability to see things as God sees them. The prayer rightly asks for it rather than assuming we have it.

Why it works for people in recovery

Addiction is, among other things, a disorder of control. The addict tries desperately to control feelings, circumstances, and other people, while being unable to control the one thing that is destroying them. The Serenity Prayer names that paradox and offers a way through: surrender what you cannot control to God, take responsibility for what you can, and ask for the wisdom to tell them apart. That is a summary of the first three of the Twelve Steps.

Is the Serenity Prayer Catholic?

It was written by a Protestant, but there is nothing in it that any Catholic cannot pray wholeheartedly. Its themes are the themes of the Gospel: trust in God's providence, honest repentance, and the pursuit of wisdom. Many Catholic retreat houses, hospitals, and parishes use it. It fits naturally alongside the Our Father, which asks in a similar way that God's will be done.

How to pray it in daily life

• Pray it in the moment. When you feel anxiety rising, pause and say the three lines slowly. Then ask: which category is this problem in?
• Pray it with a specific situation in mind. Name the thing you cannot change. Name the thing you can. Ask for wisdom about the gray area.
• Pray it as an examination at night. Where did I try to control what was not mine today? Where did I avoid what was?
• Pray it for someone else. Grant her the serenity, grant him the courage.

The Serenity Prayer is short enough to memorize in a minute and deep enough to pray for a lifetime. That combination is why a prayer written by a summer pastor in a small New England church has become one of the most prayed texts in the world.