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Nightingale Prayer

“Today, our world needs healing and to be rekindled with Love.

Once, Florence Nightingale
lit her beacon of lamplight to comfort the wounded
and her Light has blazed a path of service across a Century to us,
through her example and through the countless
Nurses and Healers
who have followed in her footsteps.

Today, we celebrate the flame of Florence Nightingale's Legacy.
Let that same Light be rekindled
to burn brightly in our hearts.

Let us take up our own Lanterns of Caring,
each in our own ways.

To more brightly walk our own paths
of service to the World.
To more clearly share
our own Noble Purpose with each other.

May Human Caring become the Lantern for the 21st Century.

May we better learn to care for ourselves,
for each other
and for all Creation.

Through our Caring, may we be the Keepers of that Flame.

That Our Spirits may burn brightly
to kindle the hearts of our children and great-grandchildren
as they too follow in these footsteps.”

 — by Deva-Marie Beck, PhD, RN

This prayer was first written for use by the author for her keynote address at “An International Tribute to Florence Nightingale at Scutari” during the Istanbul United Nations Human Settlements HABITAT II Summit, June 2, 1996. On the same day, it was presented in a prayer dance by Deva-Marie's cousin, Janet McGurk, at Questhaven Retreat in Escondido, California.

It was then featured in the June, 1998 issue of the “Journal of Holistic Nursing” and in many related journals and books since that time. It has also been keynoted at the National Cathedral, Washington, DC Commemorative National & Global Services for Florence Nightingale, Nurses & Nursing, on August 12, 2001, May 9, 2004 and on April 25, 2010, during the International Year of the Nurse /Florence Nightingale Centennial. Click here to see a webcast of the 2010 Service.

This text has been used many times, across the world, in ceremonies and presentations to remember Nightingale and honour nurses. This use is encouraged with full attribution to the author and to the Nightingale Initiative for Global Health (NIGH).

You can order this Nightingale Prayer as a 8.5 x 11 high-resolution graphic on an antique paper background, suitable for framing.
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