Our Divine Longing for Peace

January 2, 2024


Hi! Happy New Year 2024 and blessings from Mary, Mother of God and our mother, too.


How did you celebrate New Year’s Eve?  We attended midnight Mass and had Noche Buena.  Then we went outside and enjoyed a package of sparklers after which we watched how other countries welcomed the New Year with fireworks. Some of us remained outside to enjoy the fireworks set off around the neighborhood.

On New Year’s day after brunch, I rushed to try designing what came to mind as another “could-be” personal greeting card; this time for the New Year (cf. above). I was encouraged by the comment of a friend in a messenger group.  She posted a train of 40 colorful commercial greeting cards and then referring to the one (cf. previous post, Our Divine Longing for Justice, December 26, 2023) I sent to the group she replied:  “Have received a lot of Santa and commercial greetings.  A good season’s greetings at last.” Then followed a couple of other personal greeting cards. If and whenever I could manage to design greetings, I prefer to send personal ones.

Am sure you are eager to read through the following excerpt on our divine longing for justice (From Broken Gods, Hope, Healing, and the Seven Longings of the Human Heart, Gregory K. Popcak, Ph. D. Ch2).

Sloth, the fourth of the capital sins                                                 

Sloth is a distortion of the divine longing for peace.  In this life, the divine longing for peace motivates us to live a more harmonious life.  Our desire for peace is an innate call from God.  In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says those who seek true peace will be called “blessed” (Mt 5:9).  In seeking peace, we are facilitating our divinization because in the process we become more attuned to God’s will.  Sloth perverts our divine longing for peace because under its influence we believe that the best way to achieve peace is to close our eyes to the problems around us, keep our heads down, and avoid any potential conflict—even conflict that involves working for justice, our good, and the good of those around us.

Diligence:  a steady, earnest, and energetic effort:  devoted and painstaking work and application to accomplish an undertaking:  Assiduity

SLO Classical Academy

The divine longing for peace can be satisfied only by practicing the heavenly virtue of diligence.  In the Lord’s Prayer, we say, “Thy will be done.” When we’re diligent we facilitate God’s will no matter what the cost or how long it takes us on the only path to true peace in our lives.  Diligence (aka fortitude) represents our commitment to cooperate with God’s grace so that his will might be done in the world—or at least in our little corner of it.  By diligently discerning and then courageously pursuing God’s will in our lives and relationships, we can begin to assuage the ache in our hearts that is the divine longing for peace.

Elmira City School District

Fortitude:  strength of mind that enables a person to encounter danger or bear painor adversity with courage.

Strength of spirit, or fortitude, helps us cope with difficulties and overcome our limitations. For Christians, Christ is our example of how to practice fortitude, the virtue that opens the way to many others.


Discerning:  ability to judge which things of a particular kind are good and which are bad.

Quote Fancy            

Augustine of Hippo defines the term "TranquillitasOrdinis" in Book 19 of the City of God as "the peace of all things" or "well-ordered concord". Augustine links peace with his meaning of order, in which all things in the universe have their proper place established by God, their creator.

Well, I guess I have to say goodbye for now so that I don’t delay this post longer.

 Hope to share with you about our Christmas ‘joke’ and ‘game’ in the next post?

 See you then, “May tomorrow be a perfect day; may you find love and laughter along the way; may God keep you in his tender care; ‘til He brings us together again.”

Affectionately,                    

Guadalupinky   

 


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