Lord, grant us peace

 

Blessed

We live in very frightening times. Everybody longs for and begs for peace. There are entire generations who have never known a time of peace. There are people who are forever haunted by violence, threat, and abuse. We are so helpless and so desperate we "buy" the first promise of "peace and order".
The thing is, all that the world offers is a promise of "fragile peace". It is fragile because most often it is bought by violence, by fear, by ignorance. That is not true peace.
The peace that God wants for His children is a "peace that surpasses all understanding". Perhaps that is why we don't buy it. We want peace that is translated as: order in the streets; well-being and prosperity; doing what I want without being accountable to anybody.
You see, our formula for peace is WRONG. It is so egocentric and without any reference to the common good, to what is best for others even if it means sacrifice on my part. The kind of peace that we like is violence-in-the-making. When we are at the center of the world, the world doesn't have any secure and constant point of reference. We see every day how we are prone to wanting one thing today and the exact opposite tomorrow. How then can we make ourselves the point of reference?
We live in very frightening times. But I am a Christian. My faith helps me to look at life with realism, hope and courage. Jesus Christ came to give us life, life to the full. This he did, not by making everything "perfect" according to our human schemes.
Jesus said and showed in  His life that the one who loses his life for the Kingdom (and all the values it represents) will find his life a hundredfold. This is what it means to have life to the full.
We may have a long life but it isn't a guarantee that we have found life's meaning.
The saints, yes, those considered fools by worldly standards, found the secret to life's meaning. It was the pearl of great price for which they have renounced everything.
That is why they are called BLESSED.

God answers our prayers

Sometimes God answers our prayers, not in the way that we are expecting. We just have to trust that God knows best. The way may be long and narrow, but it always leads to peace.

Carving our own destiny

We need leaders who remind us of our noblest ideals and help us to journey towards the realization of these ideals.
To think that leaders are like vending machines that will give us the finished product that we need is to renounce our sacred right and obligation to carve our own destiny. It is a sure road to frustration.
The building of any group: family, community, country, isn't a one-man or one-woman job.
When we choose someone because he/she promises to make life a paradise for us, we are selling ourselves short. It will never happen. It has never happened and it never will.
What we need is to take responsibility. We need to believe that change starts from us. We need to be convinced that peace or progress, if it doesn't benefit everybody isn't peace or progress at all.

Bring back God

"He shall judge between the nations,
and impose terms on many peoples.
They shall beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into prunning hooks;
one nation shall not raise the sword against another,
nor shall they train for war again.
O house of Jacob, come,
let us walk in the light of the Lord!"
(Is 2:4-5)

Were I to envision the future, this is how it will be: instruments of death transformed into tools that give life; no more training for war, because there will be no more wars, instead, people will be learning to truly live.
I think this is everybody's dream, especially of our brothers and sisters whose only experience of life is to run from one place to another, just trying to save their lives and, if they are lucky enough, to have food, shelter, an education, work.
I think this is every person's dream. But we have to extend this dream beyond the limited circle of our friends and family, beyond ethnic and national boundaries. And, in order to do this, there is one condition: give back to the true God the Lordship and live our lives according to God's original plan.

Peace-bearers

There is always a danger that in our passion to promote peace we could resort to means that are contrary to what we are workingfor. Of course we want to see results, nay, we are impatient to see results, and in our haste to see them we, sort of, force the issue, we use shortcuits. But shortcuts often boomerang on us.
In today's Gospel Jesus sends out his disciples. Among his recommendations, Jesus tells them to bring peace wherever they go. Should the place where they go choose not to accept that peace, it doesn't mean that the disciples have failed. The peace that they have offered to others will always come back to them.
We will never have peace by forcing the issue. To give to others the gift of peace is to allow them to accept it or to refuse it. But whatever their response is, it will never take away the peace in our heart. In doing this we may not see the end to global issues of peace, but we will be planting seeds of peace in the heart. In the long run, and maybe we won't see this in our lifetime, this is the only way to peace in the world.

Peace is the first good news

In today's Lucan Gospel text Jesus tells His disciples that the first gift they bring wherever they go is the gift of peace. The gift of peace is the gift of harmony, of everything falling into their proper place according to God's plan.
It shows how our way of evangelizing should be: not with blows or by force, because the Gospel has a fascinating power of its own, and we do it a great disservice when we offer it by force.

The gift of healing

Nope, it isn't true. Time doesn't heal all wounds, especially wounded relationships. Together with time is the other factor called "letting go" and it is translated in forgiving yourself and the other person.
And  being healed doesn't mean that things go back to where they were before. This is impossible.
Being healed means being able to pick up the phone, listen to that still familiar voice, and feel a quiet peace within.

Faith-ful

 

"Give yourself to God and give every part of your body to God to be instrument of uprightness, and then sin will no longer have any power over you - you are living not under law, but under grace," (Rm 6:13-14)

"Faithfulness is keeping one's word, promise, and commitments no matter how tough or difficult it gets."

Faithfulness comes from the word faith.
Faithfulness is only possible because of faith. Life is constantly changing. My feelings and emotions, too, have their ups and downs. So these factors don't make it easy for me to be faithful. That is why I need faith.
I need faith - to trust and to be convinced that my conviction makes sense despite its general rejection by the world.
I need faith - to persevere in my choice even when I encounter contradictions or even when my feelings are not so high.
Lastly, I believe that what is most important is to be faithful to my identity. So there is a need to constantly remember - Who am I? What is the purpose of my life? Then all the externals will just fall into place very naturally without any stressful effort on my part, because a life in God can give nothing but true peace.

Peace

Our contribution to peace begins from God.
Let us ask God to grant us peace, peace from within.
Let us ask God to free us from unnecessary needs and clinging, because these are the walls that we create in our hearts. Where there are walls, there is a need to defend, and often we do so by force.
Let us ask God to give us eyes that see the beauty of the variety of colors and sounds that come from encountering other people. When we meet others, we build bridges. Where there are bridges there are wider possibilities, greater horizons.
Let us do our part in creating a world of peace especially for the future generations.
Peace be with you.

Changes

 

There are experiences in life that totally change us. The price to pay is higher when we think that up until that moment our life has been going well or was nearly perfect. So we resist change.
We ask ourselves so many "whys".
Why can't things stay forever the same?
Why did this happen to me?
Why is life unfair?
We may repeat these questions again and again. Well-meaning people may try to give us the answers. But in reality there are no easy and clear-cut answers.
It is then that we are called to just stay and live with the questions.
And when we reach the point of having even a little opening in our hearts to welcome the new, little by little we will realize that the "new" has something to offer us.
We may not arrive at the answers to our whys, but they won't matter anymore because something new has sprouted and is growing in our lives. We are at peace.

How to live

Don't let the way you live your life be dictated by your feelings. Follow the way of Jesus. It may not give you an immediate feeling of consolation, but it will slowly give you a quiet joy and an inner peace that no one can take away.

Our legacy

Let us sow peace and forgiveness, not hatred. Let us leave a legacy of kindness, forgiveness and joy. At the end of our life what will give us the greatest consolation is not how blameless we are but how much happiness we have spread.

Principles

To live by principles is a sign of maturity.
But how do we know the authenticity of our principles?
True principles are guided by universal values that don't change, that don't become outdated by the passage of time, values that are not dependent on gender, race or social class.
Here is the test: We live by authentic principles when, in spite of being alone we are at peace. Otherwise, it is only egoism.

A prayer for one who is in pain

If I can only make things better for you, I will do so. But we know that each one of us must make our own journey and write our own life story with the God of love.
I entrust you to Mother Mary. May you rest in her arms where she cradles you as you cry your silent tears. May her hands, seasoned by life's experiences, wipe away the tears in your eyes so that you may see shafts of light, one at a time, until you are able to see and touch again the rainbow that has always been there in the horizon.

Peace on earth

Glory to God in the highest and peace to all men and women of goodwill.
Yes, may this new year be a time of recognizing that without God in our lives all our efforts at success, at the good life, do not really give us what we think they can give us. Without God in our lives we run around without any direction.
And as we re-discover God, we will find, to our surprise, that He has been there all along, in the ups and downs of our life. He is the voice that tells us not to surrender; the gentle breeze that breathes peace to our restless hearts.

Peace

Inspired by a verse on today's Gospel: "Because of the tender mercy of our God by which the daybreak from on high will visit us to shine on those who sit in darkness and death's shadow, to guide our feet into the path of peace." (Lk 1:78-79).
Peace on earth will not be the result of treaties, armed security or beauty pageants.
Peace on earth is the fruit of the tenderness and mercy of our God that illumines and dispels the darkness in our hearts so that, finally, we are able to see that we are all sisters and brothers whose lives not only touch but are intertwined.

Kind words

Kind words spring from a peaceful heart.

Greater peace

I experience greater peace in letting myself be disturbed than in the comfort of my self-defined boundaries.

Joseph's story is every person's story

These days we have been reading the story of Joseph and his brothers. This story has always fascinated me since I was a child. Joseph - the chosen one, the fair-skinned son of the beloved wife.
Joseph has certainly lived a charmed life as a boy, but everything ended in a flash. He certainly wasn't prepared for that fateful day when his life took an unexpected turn. Tired of being second best and of being lumped together in the generic term "Jacob's other sons", Joseph's brothers wanted to get rid of him. The first plan was to kill him, but one brother interceded "let's just sell him to the travelling merchants..."
Joseph pleaded, after all, these are his brothers. They have the same father, they ate at the same table. But the brothers' hearts have already been hardened. Envy and jealousy have a way of killing whatever spark of reason there is.
Then begins Joseph's many adventures...
From being sold as a slave, to being jailed, to being a high official in Egypt, second only to the Pharaoh himself.
It is a real dumpsters-to-throne story.
It takes only a few chapters of the book of Genesis to see how Joseph's life story had a happy ending.
In real life, it must not have been very easy for Joseph. Who knows how many nights he laid awake trembling with fear while he was with the caravan of the travelling merchants. What did he feel everytime he remembered his brothers' treachery and betrayal? How long did he struggle to accept that he was now alone in a hostile and foreign world, and that he would never see his beloved father again? Did he ever blame himself for what happened? Did revenge ever enter his mind? What about death, did he ever think of death as a sweet end to everything?
The Bible doesn't give answers to these questions, but given the number of years that it took before he ever saw his brothers again, I am sure that Joseph did not even imagine that his life would have not only a happy, but a glorious ending!
I guess Joseph's story is the story of every man and woman.
There are times in our life when we feel that there is no way out, that we have already exhausted all our options, that everything conspires to lead us to a downward spiral. There are many experiences that just don't make sense, no matter how much time and attention we give to dissecting them. There is just nothing in them for us except suffering.
But somehow, we survive, in different ways.
These experiences change us.
Probably for many of us, our stories will not have Joseph's perfect ending, that is, full closure, with people and events that have treated us badly, trampled our self-esteem and forced us to go on a very lonely journey.
For many of us, the happy ending will be something "quiet", like when we come to realize that, indeed, something good has happened out of the bad blows that life has dealt us with.
We do not know how long it will take before we arrive at this realization. That is why we need the presence of Someone who can be our deep center, Someone who will not give us the answers like a vendo machine, but Someone who will keep us company as we go through the journey's ups and downs, lights and shadows.
God will help us to read the beautiful stories that He writes with our life's crooked lines.