Nurturing Peace
December 10, 2024
Hello! How is each and every one? We are in the second week of joyfully expecting and preparing for the coming birth of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, the Emmanuel. Many good things are happening around the world as there are also continuing wars and unrest throughout. Let us join hands with many good intentioned people who want peace and who are joining forces and all they have to work towards the good, putting God, the Almighty on top of the world. On our part we can do what is within our power to do, at least pray and do good at all times. Do what is good, do what is right, and do what is true. My favorite quote on this is St. Augustine’s: “Bad times, hard times, this is what people keep saying; but let us live well, and times shall be good. We are the times! Such as we are, such are the times” (Sermon 80:8). Let us challenge ourselves, you and myself to seek first of all to come closer to God ourselves, to be contemplatives in our ordinary life; seeking God, finding Him, knowing Him, loving Him and serving Him in this life. It should not be hard to do so if we try to see everything as coming from God, our life, our faith, our family, our relatives, our friends, our work. Everything good and beautiful has the fingerprint of God. Acknowledging His presence in everything and in every person is the right way to start. Thanking God every time we use the gifts and talents He has given us and continues to give us is the best way to live life. So let us continue doing so from here onwards.
Following is the last part of the chapter on our divine longing for peace (From Broken Gods, Hope, Healing, and the Seven Longings of the Human Heart, Gregory K. Popcak, Ph. D. Ch 7).
Pray
Lord Jesus Christ,
You are the source of the peace beyond all
understanding. Help me to remember,
Lord, that true peace can be achieved only by seeking right order. Give me the diligence I need both to use my
gifts more fully and to persevere despite the obstacles and frustrations I
encounter. Help me to remember that you
have called me to be your presence in the world. Help me to engage more fully so that I might
experience a more abundant life in this world and the next. I ask this through Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen.
COAL: Fuel for Change
As you consider ways in which you could more effectively satisfying your
divine longing for peace, take a moment to consider how COAL can help fuel the
changes you would like to make in your life.
CURIOSITY AND OPENNESS
Ask yourself: Where did I learn that the best way to get through life was
to shut down or check out?
Who taught me this response?
What situations impressed this lesson on me?
Do I want to continue to allow these experiences to rule my life?
Do not judge or edit yourself.
Receive your answers in a spirit of openness and grace.
ACCEPTANCE
Say, “These are the experiences that have shaped my struggle to satisfy
my divine longing for peace. I accept my
past even as I accept God’s call to change and grow.”
LOVE
What specific situations in my life would benefit from my being more
diligent in working to restore right order?
What obstacles would I have to overcome to achieve this goal?
What help, resources, or support might I need to overcome these
obstacles?
Say, “I will love myself and accept God’s love for me by choosing this
path of diligence over the temptation to sloth.”
Review these loving resolutions each morning. Imagine a time in the coming day when you might be tempted to sloth. Imagine responding instead with diligence. Ask for God’s help to remember this more loving response in those times when you are feeling tempted to shut down or withdraw from the things happening right in front of you.
Increasing your capacity for diligence to satisfy your divine longing for
peace requires two things. First, you
need to increase your awareness of how your gifts (including your time,
treasure, talent, and even your body) can be used to make the lives of others
around you better. Second, you need to
learn to keep up your efforts in the face of obstacles.
TO INCREASE AWARENESS
When you enter a room, ask yourself:
What is one thing I can do to leave this room in better shape than I
found it? Each day, ask yourself: What
will I do to make the life of one person I know a little easier today?
TO SUSTAIN YOUR EFFORTS
Each day, ask yourself: What is
one problem the people around me are concerned with? What is one small thing I can do to generate
a new idea for solving this problem or one small step I can take to effect a
solution?
At the end of each day write one or two sentences on what you did that
day to try to address this problem by gathering new information, suggesting a
new idea, or making some small effort to resolve it.
Write one or two sentences on the obstacles you encountered (from either
inside or outside yourself) as you tried to address the problem.
Write one or two sentences about how you might overcome that obstacle
(e.g., by gathering new information, talking to the person who got in your way,
seeking more training or professional assistance, etc.).
Write one sentence describing the action step you will attempt tomorrow
in order to take another step forward.
Then look at your schedule or smart device and create an appointment to
accomplish this task.
The Divine Longing for
Peace: A Promise
As you have seen throughout this chapter, the divine longing for peace is not achieved by sitting down and taking a load off. It can be achieved only by first becoming prayerfully aware of the changes God wishes to make in and through you and then applying yourself diligently to making those changes so that you can live a more abundant life in both this world and the next. As St. Gerard Majella put it, “Who except God can give you peace? Has the world ever been able to satisfy the heart?”
You can hope to truly satisfy the divine longing for peace only if you can leave behind the temptation to try to arrange a life that is small enough that you can manage on your own (there is no such thing) and instead embrace the largesse of the life God wants for you. But in doing so, you will get more than you bargained for. Not only will you become a powerful agent of change and grace; you will draw closer and closer to fulfilling your ultimate destiny by conforming yourself more and more to the image of the same God who said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you” (Jn 14:27).
The secret to all the above
exercise is to cultivate an intimate relationship with Jesus every day, morning,
noon and night; doing things in His company and presence. Right now to bring into your moments of quiet
prayer all the above and listen to what He tells you to do.
We
started the month of December with a novena to the Immaculate Conception of the
Blessed Virgin Mary, we celebrated her Immaculate Conception, last December 8, December
10 was the feast of Our Lady of Loreto, and tomorrow, December 12 is the feast Our Lady of Guadalupe. What more joyful way is there of preparing
for the coming of the child Jesus than being with His Mother Mary along the
way? Let us continue accompanying Mary up
to the birth of Jesus and all the way through life together
with St. Joseph.
See you in the next post, “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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