Jean Vanier wrote a book all about finding peace, aptly named just that. As the world struggles to figure out what finding peace looks like globally, it is often hard to also know what it looks like for us in the day-to-day.
The following excerpt from Vanier’s book is a great reminder for us as we strive to be “The Hand of God, in the Heart of the City.”
“Peace is not just the absence of war and it is not just living alongside others, ignoring them, indifferent to them, or avoiding them. Peace is getting to know each other, appreciating each other, seeing each other’s value, and receiving from each other.
It flows from a communion of heats in which we discover that we are truly brothers and sisters belonging to a common humanity. This communion of hearts is not just sentimental; it does not mean merely sheltering amidst a friendly group. It implies that together, as a community and as friends, we are committed to working for peace and justice.
Peace is the fruit of love, a love that is also justice. But to grow in love requires work – hard work. And it can bring pain because it implies loss – loss of the certitudes, comforts, and hurts that shelter and define us.”
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is discord, union;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O 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.
Amen
(found here)