Peace by Peace

‘Be at peace with your own soul,
then heaven and earth will be at peace with you.’
Saint Jerome
Christ is Risen!

by Catherine Doherty

Alleluia! Christ is risen! Verily he is risen! Because he has, darkness has been conquered by light, death by life, and hate by love. Now the world lives in the resurrected Christ.

Whether men and women know it or not, the world has changed; it and the cosmos are now living, existing in the Lord of history, of eternity, of time, and of love. And not only is the Church on pilgrimage toward the Parousia, the Second Coming, but so are all men and women and all the world, and all that surrounds God’s world.

The resurrection of Christ brought love among us, and it is the very principle of our existence. If we recognize this, we can transform the world.

It’s such a simple thing that requires only faith in the resurrected Christ. It is so simple that it is overlooked by many who write heavy treatises about abolishing poverty and stopping wars.

But human beings are not satisfied with bread alone. They desperately need love, almost more than the air they breathe.

Why not start the fire of love by loving—one by one—all whom we meet and deal with during the day? Then indeed the resurrection of Christ will become meaningful. Our pilgrimage to him will become joyous, and we will restore the world to him.

We will eat the fruit of love daily—peace and happiness, the like of which we never dreamed existed. Let’s begin now.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! Verily he is risen!

—From Grace in Every Season, (2001) April 11, pp. 107-108, http://www.madonnahouse.org/publications/doherty/gies.htm Photo of Catherine on http://www.madonnahouse.org/restoration/2009/04/christ_is_risen.html ]

Steps to Reduce Social Violence

In 1974 Jamaica instituted a wide scale anti-crime program that included strict gun control and the censorship of gun scenes from television and movies. In the following year, robberies dropped 25 percent, and non-fatal shootings dropped by 37 percent. (From: Peace Ideas, No. 24)

May I find my joy in You

Lord, inaccessible light is your dwelling place, for no one apart from you can enter into it and fully comprehend you. If I fail to see this light it is simply because it is too bright for me. Still, it is by this light that I do see all that I can, even as weak eyes, unable to look straight at the sun, see all that they can by the sun’s light.

The light in which you dwell, Lord, is beyond my understanding. It is so brilliant that I cannot bear it, I cannot turn my mind’s eye toward it for any length of time. I am dazzled by its brightness, amazed by its grandeur, overwhelmed by its immensity, bewildered by its abundance.

O supreme and inaccessible light, O complete and blessed truth, how far you are from me, even though I am so near to you! How remote you are from my sight, even though I am present to yours! You are everywhere in your entirety, and yet I do not see you; in you I move and have my being, and yet I cannot approach you; you are within me and around me, and yet I do not perceive you.

St Anselm of Canterbury, feast: 21 April; died 21 April 1109.

[Some images of St Anselm: http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images_adv_prop=image&fr=moz2&va=st+anselm+canterbury&sz=all ]

The Secret of Peace of Mind

Happiness and peace of mind from the realization that we are one with all the others as expressions of the One Life, the One Self, and from the practical application of that realization in a life of service by action and thought.
~ From Peace Ideas, No. 40 ~

Eco-Action Beyond Band-Aids

If you wish to be really helpful and effective in environmental work, there are two guidelines suggested by author Jon Naar which you must always keep in mind:

• Go to the root of the problem. Go beyond the symptoms (such as cleaning the dirt of coal smokestack) and go to the cause (burning coal) and eliminating it (by switching to clean fuel, or using conservation to make power plant unnecessary.
• Be prepared to make changes. The health of a system depends on its ability to change. So long as a biological, political or energy system responds to its environment, it stays healthy - otherwise, it gets sick, that is, it pollutes. If we want clean air, clean water, safe food or accountable politics, we have to remove the underlying causes of the pollution. This means changing unhealthy systems and institutions and, in so doing, we will change ourselves. Like charity, the process of protecting and cleaning up the environment begins at home.

Source: Jon Naar, Design for a Livable Planet. (From Peace Ideas, #17)