Category Archive:Novena for Peace 2012

Novena for Peace: Day 9 Peace As a Way of Life

Barbara post on December 21st, 2012
Posted in Communication, Family, Meditation, Novena for Peace 2012, Prayer, Spirituality Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Peace begins with a thought, an idea, a seed germinating in a heart that is watered with love, gratitude, forgiveness, compassion, and respect for all life. Peace isn’t simply the focus of nine days of prayer; peace is a way of life.

woman & 2 dogs hikingSo, water the peace seed in you. Feed your heart with the smiles of young children, with the beauty of nature – a field of flowers, the sunset over an ocean’s rhythmic motion, light filtering through the trees on a forest path, a mountainside blanketed in snow. Water your soul with chords of music that vibrate with the essence of being human, with the joy that comes from giving to another human being in need, with the compassion that insists you care well for yourself too.

Nurture that peace so you can go into the world to be the peace you long to see, the peace that can change the world as we know it. There is a difference, however, between keeping the peace and maintaining a status quo that is unjust or causes suffering. That status quo must be courageously challenged. Yet the challenge must emanate from the peace we have in our heart and must be enacted out of love, not resentment.

“Peace between countries must rest on the solid foundation of love between individuals.” Mahatma Gandhi

“Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.”  Albert Einstein

“If you wish to experience peace, provide peace for another.” Tenzin Gyatso, The 14th Dalai Lama

 

On this last day of our Novena for Peace, the Mayan long-count-calendar completes its cycle and ushers in a new age, the next chapter in the story of humankind. We individually and collectively can choose whether it will be an era of peace or if we continue in violence, separation, resentments, and war.

 

“A great human revolution in just a single individual will help achieve a change in the destiny of a nation and, further, can even enable a change in the destiny of all humankind.”

― Daisaku Ikeda, Buddhist philosopher, author, educator, poet in The Human Revolution

Peace be with you.

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Novena for Peace: Day 8 Choose Peace

Barbara post on December 20th, 2012
Posted in Meditation, Novena for Peace 2012, Prayer, Spirituality Tags: , , , , , ,

Thinking about the enormity of the problems that war and violence generate can mask the reality that each of us has a responsibility to be a peacemaker, to choose peace in every thought and action. The choices we make in our everyday lives reverberate through the whole of the universe; each of us matters and each of us has the power to shift more towards peace.

“We often think of peace as the absence of war, that if powerful countries would reduce their weapon arsenals, we could have peace. But if we look deeply into the weapons, we see our own minds—our own prejudices, fears and ignorance. Even if we transport all the bombs to the moon, the roots of war and the roots of bombs are still there, in our hearts and minds, and sooner or later we will make new bombs.

“To work for peace is to uproot war from ourselves and from the hearts of men and women. To prepare for war, to give millions of men and women the opportunity to practice killing day and night in their hearts, is to plant millions of seeds of violence, anger, frustration, and fear that will be passed on for generations to come.”

Thich Nhat Hanh in Living Buddha, Living Christ

 

“Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living. We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount.”

General Omar Nelson Bradley, 1893 – 1981

If we make a conscious choice to dedicate ourselves to a life of peace we can be an unstoppable force for good. Living the Sermon on the Mount, acting with love, practicing radical forgiveness, protecting and upholding the dignity of all life (not just the lives similar to ours or the ones we like), acknowledging our Oneness with each other, will make a difference.

We continue to pray a Novena for Peace asking for the strength and courage to make such choices.

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Novena for Peace: Day 7 – Peace In Our Hearts

Barbara post on December 19th, 2012
Posted in Meditation, Novena for Peace 2012, Prayer, Spirituality Tags: , , , , , ,

Peace In Our Hearts

I have long contended that we cannot have peace in the world until we have peace in our hearts. This lesson has been taught by religious leaders across time, faiths, and belief systems. Something that universally taught must be true. If we can learn to experience inner peace, we can recognize our Oneness and in that Oneness we will choose peace.

the moon rising over the river“The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize at the center of the universe dwells the Great Spirit, and that its center is really everywhere, it is within each of us.”―

Black Elk 1863-1950 Oglala Lakota (Sioux) medicine man who later embraced Catholicism and saw no conflict in, or contradiction between, the spiritual teachings of both.

 “The God who existed before any religion counts on you to make the oneness of the human family known and celebrated.” Archbishop Desmond Tutu

 

“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.”  Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta

 

“World peace must develop from inner peace. Peace is not just mere absence of violence. Peace is, I think, the manifestation of human compassion.” Dalai Lama XIV

 

“Each one has to find his peace from within. And for peace to be real it must be unaffected by outside circumstances.”  Mahatma Gandhi

 

“Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.” Buddha

And so we continue praying our Novena for Peace  becoming conscious of the ways in which we are (or can become) instruments of peace. We also look within to see the ways in which we disturb peace. With conscious attention, to both we learn how to choose peace more often.

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Novena Day 6: Power in Small Things

Barbara post on December 18th, 2012
Posted in Meditation, Novena for Peace 2012, Prayer, Spirituality Tags: , , , , , , ,

Power in the small things

“If we just worry about the big picture, we are powerless. So my secret is to start right away doing whatever little work I can do. I try to give joy to one person in the morning, and remove the suffering of one person in the afternoon. If you and your friends do not despise the small work, a million people will remove a lot of suffering. That is the secret. Start right now.”

Sister Chän Khöng peace activist, expatriate Vietnamese Buddhist nun

In the vastness of the world with all its problems, violence, tragedy, and war we can feel that we are powerless. It is easy to feel that we couldn’t possibly make a difference, that anything we offer is insignificant.

Yet if we are truly One with each other and One with God, then the small offerings we make in prayer and in loving service to one another will accomplish their purpose. The small things we can do give our lives purpose, meaning, and add to our own internal sense of peace. And each small good thing sends its vibration outward into to the world as well as throughout the Divine matrix that connects us all. Each prayer, each thought, each vibration is significant.

Intentionally joining our voices, prayers, and works of love and compassion together will invite peace into our lives, communities, and indeed into the world. And so we continue to pray our Novena for Peace.

“I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something.  And because I cannot do everything I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.” Helen Keller

 

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Novena Day 5: Inner life/Outer life

Barbara post on December 17th, 2012
Posted in Meditation, Novena for Peace 2012, Prayer, Spirituality

jpg imageOur inner lives (spirit) are not always in harmony with our outer lives. If our inner life/outer life remains in discord, so too will our world.We believe we are human beings experiencing the reality of living, yet we are spiritual beings caught in the illusion of our individualism and separation from our Oneness with each other and God. The realms of the inner world, that is our spirituality, have the power to awaken us to our true nature.

But once awakened, we can see the illusion for what it is; we can focus on what truly matters. We can love without fear. We can see that this life is not a zero-sum game in which we must fight for our share. It is a celebration of Divine Love and there is always enough.

“How aware are we of our own inner life, our spirituality-something so intangible yet so priceless? How much effort do we make to perceive that which is not obvious, which can neither be seen nor heard? I believe the exploration and enrichment of the human spirit is what determines our very humanity. Such enrichment provides an inner compass that can lead civilizations to greatness.”
― Daisaku Ikeda Buddhist philosopher, author, educator, poet

“Instead of hating the people you think are war-makers, hate the appetites and disorder in your own soul, which are the causes of war. If you love peace, then hate injustice, hate tyranny, hate greed – but hate these things in yourself, not in another.”
― Thomas Merton  (1915-1968) Trappist Monk at Our Lady of Gethsemani Abbey, Kentucky,

Our ability to suspend judgment, to be one with our fellow human beings, and to feel peace is being sorely tested by outside events in these days of prayer. Yet we continue to pray the Novena for Peace for to do otherwise is giving up on the miracle we can create.

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Novena Day 4: The Sacred Space Between Us

Barbara post on December 16th, 2012
Posted in Meditation, Novena for Peace 2012, Prayer, Spirituality

On this weekend, with a bit more time to reflect on our journey toward peace, Hedy Schleifer beautifully explains the power of connection that exists in what Jewish philosopher Martin Buber called the sacred space that lives between us. That sacred space exists between any two people or cities or countries and we must “cross the bridge” over that sacred space to meet each other with understanding and love.

This Ted video is nearly 20 minutes long, but it is worth every moment.

Hedy Schleifer: The Power of Connection

 

Our children grow in the space between us. The space between the couple is the playground of the child. When we know how to honor that space and make it sacred, our children can blossom in that sacred space. Hedy Schleifer

Whether or not we experienced it as a child, all children deserve to grow and blossom in peaceful homes, peaceful cities, peace-filled countries.  With the peace of our children so brutally assaulted this week, we must redouble our efforts to make the world safe for them. We cannot act to do this out of fear; we must do it out of love. And so we continue to pray together a Novena for Peace.

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Novena for Peace: Day 3 Shattered Lives

Barbara post on December 15th, 2012
Posted in Family, Grief, Meditation, Novena for Peace 2012, Prayer, Spirituality Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Shattered lives, prayers for peace

Yesterday in Connecticut violence ripped through 27 families, a community, and the whole nation. Numb disbelief settles on us as we imagine the horror of mothers and fathers who wailed through the night for their little ones sent off to school to never return home again. Words are so inadequate. What comfort can we offer?

Even in our apparent impotence, we can continue prayers for peace with the specific intention to offer love and support to the families who suffer. In the mystery of our connectedness, in our Oneness, our prayers will do their work. In compassion (com = with, passion = suffer: compassion = to suffer with) we will  – in Spirit – offer our silent witness to the pain and grief of these families. As we hold them in our hearts, let us also commit to compassionately love those closest us.

For me, music soothes, especially when words are useless. When my heart hurts so deeply with events that make no sense, music helps me cope. There is a website devoted to songs of grief called the Memorial Music Library that has a page devoted to songs of grief over the loss of a child . The library plays one song after another.

Other songs I listened to after hearing the awful news were:

Nikki Venable’s Now I lay me down to sleep

Sarah McLaughlin’s In the Arms of an Angel

Eric Clapton’s Tears in Heaven

The Dixie Chicks Godspeed

Selah’s I Will Carry You

 

I spoke recently with a woman in her sixties whose child had died at 20 years old. When I asked how long ago her daughter had died she said, “ages ago and yesterday.” For these Connecticut families, their staggering loss will weave itself into the fabric of their beings. Let us pray that as it does, the pain will not crush them and that one day they will feel peace again.

We continue to pray our ritual prayers for peace with our hearts broken.

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Novena Day 2: Forgiveness & Right Action

Barbara post on December 14th, 2012
Posted in Meditation, Novena for Peace 2012, Prayer, Spirituality Tags: , , , , , , ,

Two great modern teachers speak to us today and help us understand that the power to create peace truly resides within our own souls. When we can act in accordance with our principles and forgive our frailties and the frailties of others, peace will settle in us. And when it does, we will have an abundance to share.

Forgiveness

Maíread Corrigan-Maguire, Nobel Peace Prize winner and co-founder of the Community of Peace People in Northern Ireland said, “We frail humans are at one time capable of the greatest good and, at the same time, capable of the greatest evil. Change will only come about when each of us takes up the daily struggle ourselves to be more forgiving, compassionate, loving, and above all joyful in the knowledge that, by some miracle of grace, we can change as those around us can change too.”

Right Action

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “One of the great tragedies of life is that men seldom bridge the gulf between practice and profession, between doing and saying. A persistent schizophrenia leaves so many of us tragically divided against ourselves.

On the one hand, we proudly profess certain sublime and noble principles, but on the other hand, we sadly practice the very antithesis of these principles. How often are our lives characterized by a high blood pressure of creeds and an anemia of deeds!

We talk eloquently about our commitment to the principles of Christianity, and yet our lives are saturated with the practices of paganism. We proclaim our devotion to democracy, but we sadly practice the very opposite of the democratic creed. We talk passionately about peace, and at the same time we assiduously prepare for war. We make our fervent pleas for the high road of justice, and then we tread unflinchingly the low road of injustice.

This strange dichotomy, this agonizing gulf between the ought and the is, represents the tragic theme of man’s earthly pilgrimage.”

Together we continue to pray the Novena for Peace prayer ritual.

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Novena for Peace: Day 1 reflection

Barbara post on December 13th, 2012
Posted in Meditation, Novena for Peace 2012, Prayer, Spirituality

Everybody today seems to be in such a terrible rush, anxious for greater developments and greater riches and so on, so that children have very little time for their parents, parents have very little time for each other. And in the home begins the disruption of peace of the world. Mother Teresa (Blessed Teresa of Calcutta)

The holiday season is often a time of rushing, anxiety, demands. This quote by Mother Teresa reminds us that peace often begins at home. As you begin Day 1 of the Novena for Peace, I encourage you to rest for a moment in the company of your Lord who sees into deeply into our souls.

Our souls are clothed only with love; they have no titles, awards, cars, jewelry, homes, cell phones, iPads, or the endless variety of things that prevent us from investing our hearts, and our time, into what matters most: the love we give and receive, the relationships with have with those closest to us.

Through love we will find peace. Today, show someone that they are loved.

Invite God to spend time with you in prayer, reflection and love in the Novena for Peace prayer ritual.

Blessings on your day.

 

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Novena for Peace 2012 Prayer Ritual

Barbara post on December 12th, 2012
Posted in Communication, Fear, Meditation, Novena for Peace 2012, Prayer, Spirituality

Invitation to pray a Novena for Peace 2012

For the next nine days (or any nine days of your choice in this season of holiness and hopefulness), please join me in setting aside ten minutes of our day to sit quietly reflecting on how we have added to—or disrupted—peace during the previous 24 hours. In our reflections, we may consider that if we can’t make peace in our hearts or with those closest to us, family and friends, we will continue to struggle to make peace in the world.

Our hurts and woundedness convince us of our rightness and righteousness, yet we seldom consider how our actions, beliefs, thoughts, intentions, or motivations are experienced by others.

We may in fact be right but do we act with love? Can we forgive? Can we bless our enemies—or those who simply anger us—and turn away from our need for justification, revenge, war? These are the first steps toward making peace in the world and if enough of us focus our belief that true peace is possible, we can make it real.

I invite you now to encounter God and give yourself the gift of peace so that you may go into the world and share it with others.

Getting Ready to Pray

Take a moment to settle yourself in God’s embrace by breathing deeply and slowly.

Sit or recline in a comfortable posture.

Close your eyes and intentionally relax your body as you become aware of God’s presence in you; all around you.

Breathe in the spirit of God; breathe out the cares and concerns of the day.

Invite the Spirit to join you as you pray . . .

Opening Prayer: Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love.

Where there is injury, pardon.

Where there is doubt, faith.

Where there is despair, hope.

Where there is sadness, joy.

Oh Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive. It is in pardoning that we are pardoned. And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Questions for meditation and reflection

In what way(s) have I been an instrument of peace today? Where or when did I see God in it?

What robbed me of my peace today? Can I find God there too?

How does God call to me in my frustration, anger, confusion and hurt?

Who needs my forgiveness and blessing today?

Whose forgiveness and blessing do I need?

Am I willing to surrender my ego to allow reconciliation to come to pass?

Closing prayers

Divine Lord you are the Author of all life, love, and peace and for this we give thanks.

We ask to join our hearts and voices with all your children who seek to create peace in our lives, in our families, in our communities and in our world. We desire to be instruments of peace.

We seek the courage to act in a way that reveals our knowledge of the sacredness of all life, to forgive those who hurt us, and return blessings for curses. Help us walk in every moment of each day fully conscious of our responsibility to be the peace we seek.

We pray: Father, may your name be held holy. Your kingdom come, your will be done. Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our debts for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us, and do not subject us to the final test. Amen.

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