Introductory Note:

Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961) was an important political figure in the twentieth century. He served as Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1953 to 1961, when he died in a plane crash while on a peace mission in the Congo. Hammarskjöld’s journals written during the 1940’s and 1950’s were posthumously published under the title Markings. In Markings we see Hammarskjöld’s questions, prayers, spiritual insights and aspirations.

In Devotional Classics, Richard Foster and James Bryan Smith note about Hammarskjöld’s journals, “Throughout this fascinating self-portrait Hammarskjöld does not make a single direct reference to his distinguished career as an international civil servant; neither does he mention the many presidents, kings, and prime ministers with whom he had dealings, or the dramatic historical events in which he played a central role.” His journals show that he longed to live faithfully and humbly, and to hold his prominent position with the mindset of a servant. 

Renovaré Team

12.24.56

Your own efforts did not bring it to pass,” only God — but rejoice if God found a use for your efforts in His work. Rejoice if you feel that what you did was nec­es­sary,” but remem­ber, even so, that you were sim­ply the instru­ment by means of which He added one tiny grain to the Uni­verse He has cre­at­ed for His own purposes….

***

How hum­ble the tool when praised for what the hand has done.

***

It was when Lucifer first con­grat­u­lat­ed him­self upon his angel­ic behav­ior that he became the tool of evil.

***

We have to acquire a peace and bal­ance of mind such that we can give every word of crit­i­cism its due weight, and hum­ble our­selves before every word of praise.

***

What dis­tin­guish­es the elite” from the mass­es is only their insis­tence upon qual­i­ty.” This implies a respon­si­bil­i­ty, to all for all, to the past for the future, which is the reflec­tion of a hum­ble and spon­ta­neous response to Life with its end­less pos­si­bil­i­ties, and its unique present which nev­er hap­pens twice.

***

Twice now you have done him an injus­tice. In spite of the fact that you were right” or, more cor­rect­ly, because you were, in your con­ceit and your stu­pid pride in your pow­ers you went stump­ing on over ground where each step gave him pain. 

***

Have mer­cy on us.
Have mer­cy on all our efforts, that we
Before thee, in love and faith,
Right­eous­ness and humil­i­ty,
May fol­low thee, with self denial,
Stead­fast­ness and courage,
And meet thee in the silence. 

Give us a pure heart that we may see thee,
A hum­ble heart that we may hear thee,
A heart of love that we may serve thee,
A heart of faith that we may love thee.

***

The humil­i­ty which comes from oth­ers hav­ing faith in you.

***

When you are irri­tat­ed by his pre­ten­tious­ness,” you betray the char­ac­ter of your own: it is just as it should be that he increas­es while you decrease. Choose your oppo­nents. To the wrong ones, you can­not afford to give a thought, but you must help the right ones, help them and your­self in a con­test with­out tension.

***

To remain a recip­i­ent out of humil­i­ty. And pre­serve your flexibility.

To remain a recip­i­ent and be grate­ful. Grate­ful for being allowed to lis­ten, to observe, to understand.

There is a pro­found causal rela­tion between the height of a man’s ambi­tion and the depth of his pos­si­ble fall.

***

The great” com­mit­ment all too eas­i­ly obscures the lit­tle” one. But with­out the humil­i­ty and warmth which you have to devel­op in your rela­tions to the few with whom you are per­son­al­ly involved, you will nev­er be able to do any­thing for the many. With­out them, you will live in a world of abstrac­tions, where your solip­sism, your greed for pow­er, and your death-wish lack the one oppo­nent which is stronger than they — love. Love, which is with­out an object, the out­flow­ing of a pow­er released by self-sur­ren­der, but which would remain a sub­lime sort of super­hu­man self-asser­tion, pow­er­less against the neg­a­tive forces with­in you, if it were not tamed by the yoke of human inti­ma­cy and warmed by its tenderness. …

***

Matu­ri­ty: among oth­er things, a new lack of self-con­scious­ness — the kind you can only attain when you have become entire­ly indif­fer­ent to your­self through an absolute assent to your fate.

He who has placed him­self in God’s hands stands free vis-á-vis men: he is entire­ly at his ease with them, because he has grant­ed them the right to judge.

***

Not I, but God in me.

***

Your posi­tion nev­er gives you the right to com­mand. It only impos­es on you the duty of so liv­ing your life that oth­ers can receive your orders with­out being humiliated.

***

Thou who art over us,
Thou who art one of us,
Thou who art
Also with­in us,
May all see Thee — in me also,
May I pre­pare the way for Thee,
May I thank Thee for all that shall fall to my lot,
May I also not for­get the needs of oth­ers,
Keep me in Thy love
As Thou wouldest that all should be kept in mine.
May every­thing in this my being be direct­ed to Thy glo­ry
And may I nev­er despair.
For I am under Thy hand,
And in Thee is all pow­er and goodness.

Orig­i­nal­ly from Mark­ings by Dag Hammarskjöld. New York: Bal­len­tine, 1983

Pho­to Cred­it: Unit­ed Nations / New York. Seen here (left to right), at the ros­trum of the Palais des Nations’ Assem­bly hall for the open­ing of the Inter­na­tion­al Con­fer­ence on Peace­ful Uses of Atom­ic Ener­gy: Mr. Max Petit­pierre, Pres­i­dent of the Swiss Con­fed­er­a­tion, U.N. Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al Dag Ham­marskjold, Dr. Homi J. Bhab­ha of India, Pres­i­dent of the Con­fer­ence, and Prof. Wal­ter G. Whit­man from the Unit­ed States, Con­fer­ence Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al. (Gene­va, Switzer­land, August 81955)

Text First Published October 1964 · Last Featured on Renovare.org December 2022

📚 The 2022 – 23 Ren­o­varé Book Club

This year’s nine-month, soul-shap­ing jour­ney fea­tures four books, old and new, prayer­ful­ly curat­ed by Ren­o­varé. Now under­way and there’s still time to join.

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