To be at peace requires us to be intimate with our sorrows, anger, loss, struggle, desires, pleasures, joys, and happiness
Tracks
It isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in peace. One must work at it.
Among the hills, when you sit in the cool shade of the white poplars, sharing the peace and serenity of distant fields and meadows — then let your heart say in silence, “God rests in reason
Only someone who submits to the authority of the universal order and of creation, who values the right to be part of it and a participant in it, can genuinely value himself and his neighbors and thus honor their rights as well.
It follows that, in today’s multicultural world, the truly reliable path to peaceful coexistence and creative cooperation must start from what is at the root of all cultures and what lies infinitely deeper in human hearts and minds than political opinion, convictions, antipathies, or sympathies: it must be rooted in self-transcendence
It follows that, in today’s multicultural world, the truly reliable path to peaceful coexistence and creative cooperation must start from what is at the root of all cultures and what lies infinitely deeper in human hearts and minds than political opinion, convictions, antipathies, or sympathies: it must be rooted in self-transcendence
Evening Prayer June 8
How easy it is to grow shy after our heart’s been hurt, after rebuff or even simple misunderstanding! Courageous Love help us grow bold again — bold enough to risk faithfully, to make amends and to forgive. Strengthen us enough to live responsibly for what we do that matters, for good and ill, and for what we have not done that mattered, for good and for ill. Grant us songs of courage and stories that lead us back to try again, to keep on the rough and troubled needful way, to stay steadfast in our love and steady in building anew a world of mercy and a world of peace. Amen.
Morning Prayer June 7
Love strengthen us in the courage we need to make mistakes, to fail, to risk faithfully, to learn, and to grow. Peace strengthen us in the courage we need to hold on and hold up one another, to forgive, to make amends, to grow strong together in our different ways. Faith strengthen us in the courage we need to fulfill our promises, to make refuge and way for strangers, to create a world of mercy and of hope together. Joy strengthen us in the courage we need to laugh generously, to celebrate freely, to enhearten one another, and to dance gratefully with each and every day. Amen.
Evening Prayer June 7
Where does patience come from and how does it flower? How is it I find myself praying for patience when I have so little, praying for peace when I am in turmoil, praying for what it is I imagine will hold me until the dawn? Let me breathe and in that breath find enoughness for now, the next breath leading me on. All questions cannot be answered right this minute, and today’s may need to wait for many tomorrows or many generations. Let me breathe in that breath and know enoughness. Love knows my imperfections, my being in progress and what I haven’t started upon yet and still. Let me breathe in that breath and know right now is enough. Slowly, slowly patience grows, peace fruits from the land, hope holds us from one dawn to the next. Let me breathe and my breath join all those others of people hoping and wishing and yearning what is not just yet. Let us breathe in and meet the heart of Love, breathe and join together in our enoughness. Amen.
Morning Prayer June 5
Breath of Life let me lay down my fears and burdens here, if only for a little while, and feel peace wash over me. Let my fluttering heart settle, straighten, grow strong as ancient trees and fresh with joy as new flowers. Breath of Life, you know the struggles so many of us face, wrestle, endure. You know us when we lose and when we win and when there is a draw to fight another day. Grant us the courage we need to keep on wrestling, to stay sober and to turn the tides of addiction in our communities, to stay loving and to bring healing in homes and places wrecked by violence, to stay generous and give gracefully and for goodness in each and every day. Make us into true people of peace, who open hearts and doors to transforming love, who dance with life and invite others to that dance. You know us in our struggles and the challenges our hearts and communities are facing. Help us turn back into them in this and every day. Amen.
The first principle of non-violent action is non-cooperation with everything humiliating.
We can make our minds so like still water that beings gather about us, that they may see their own images, and so live for a moment with a clearer, perhaps even a fiercer life, life because of our quiet
