Pseudo-Thomas More: "Grant me, O Lord, good digestion, and also something to digest"

"Grant me, O Lord, good digestion, and also something to digest. Grant me a healthy body, and the necessary good humour to maintain it. Grant me a simple soul that knows to treasure all that is good and that doesn’t frighten easily at the sight of evil, but rather finds the means to put things back in their place. Give me a soul that knows not boredom, grumbling, sighs and laments, nor excess of stress, because of that obstructing thing called 'I'. Grant me, O Lord, a sense of good humour. Allow me the grace to be able to take a joke and to discover in life a bit of joy, and to be able to share it with others".

     I have my suspicions about this one, "attributed" to St. Thomas More by Pope Francis in the Apostolic Exortation Gaudete et Exultate, and often elsewhere, but, if The Center for Thomas More Studies' Cumulative Concordance of Thomas More's English Works, which is supposed to be based on the 1963-1997 Yale Edition of the Works ed. Syvester and the 1947 Princeton edition of the Correspondence ed. Rogers, is any indication, apparently not present in at least those sectors of his œuvre (though I have not yet done due diligence with the Cumulative Concordance of Thomas More's Latin Works, or looked for it in, for example, his early biographers).

     27 January 2019:  Since composing the paragraph above, I have uncovered Frank J. Mallett's "favorite poetic prayer, found, I believe, on a tablet in Chester Cathedral, England" ("Humor in pulpit and pew," Review & expositor 34, no. 3 (July 1937):  301 (294-301)).  The relation is obvious, and of course Pope Francis was born on 17 December 1936.  So this version, at least, attributed to the "tablet in Chester Cathedral," has been in print his whole life:

Give me a good digestion, Lord,
And also something to digest.
Give me a healthy body, Lord,
With sense to keep it at its best.

Give me a healthy mind, good Lord,
To keep the good and pure in sight,
Which seeing sin is not appalled,
But finds a way to set it right.

Give me a mind that is not bored,
That does not whimper, whine or sigh,
Don’t let me worry overmuch,
About the funny thing called I.

Give me a sense of humor, Lord,
Give me the grace to see a joke,
To get some happiness from life,
And pass it on to other folk.

     With that (e.g. the reference to Chester) in hand, additional pages pop up more readily, e.g. this one:  the Abbé Germain Marc'hadour's "Most famous of More's spurious prayers:  'Give me a good digestion, Lord,'" or "Apocyrphal More," Moreana:  Bulletin Thomas More 9, no. 4 =no. 36 (December 1962):  93-96, re-posted at http://www.amici-thomae-mori.com/, which confidently attributes the following—following, supposedly, a card sold by the Cathedral and placed in evidence by its brand new Dean, the Very Reverend George W. O. Addelshaw (1962-1977)—to Thomas Henry Basil Webb (1898-1917):

Give me a good digestion, Lord,
     And also something to digest;
But when and how that something comes
     I leave to Thee, Who knowest best.

Give me a healthy body, Lord;
     Give me the sense to keep it so;
Also a heart that is not bored
     Whatever work I have to do.

Give me a healthy mind, Good Lord,
     That finds the good that dodges sight;
And seeing sin, is not appalled,
     But seeks a way to put it right.

Give me a point of view, Good Lord,
     Let me know what is, and why.
Don’t let me worry overmuch
     About the thing that’s known as 'I'.

Give me a sense of humour, Lord,
     Give me the power to see a joke,
To get some happiness from life
     And pass it on to other folk.

     This same article by the Abbé Germain Marc'hadour gives another version, along with a few of the many variants in circulation at that time (including one of those substituting "soul" for "mind"), and a reference to a version in French (cf. Fernando de Mello Moser, "More's spurious prayer (Portuguese version)," Moreana 13, no. =no. 49 (February 1976):  51-52):

Give me a good digestion, Lord,
And also something to digest.
Give me a healthy body, Lord,
With sense to keep it at its best.

Give me a healthy mind, Lord,
To keep the good and pure in sight,
Which, seeing sin, is not appalled,
But finds a way to set it right.

Give me a mind that is not bored,
That does not whimper, whine or sigh;
Don’t let me worry overmuch
About the fussy thing called I.

Give me a sense of humor, Lord,
Give me the grace to see a joke,
To get some happiness from life
And pass it on to other folk.

     I have neither 1) attempted to verify the information supplied by the Dean of Chester, nor 2) looked back behind 1937 with the help of these other versions supplied by the Abbé Marc'hadour.
     It would be interesting, for example, to know where "stress" (so strikingly modern, though More did use the term in this sense at least once) first comes in.

     2019 January 28:  I now see that Moreana maintains a list of its articles (with, often, PDF) on apocryphal prayers by More, according to which nos. 4, 36, and especially 79/80 (November 1983) all have to do with this one.  No. 79/80 speaks of its "mille avatars," and connects it up temporally with the famous prayer erroneously attributed to St. Francis.