a little clarity....

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.....

The news this past weekend has left me stunned, as probably you are too. Norway, a country of peace since World War Two, has suffered a huge loss. 92 dead, their lives taken by a man who called himself  a right wing Christian extremist who claimed he wanted to bring attention to the Muslim radicals. I shake my head in wonder....because none of this makes sense. He claims to be a Christian, yet he broke the commandment that says, "thou shall not kill." He did it in the name of God, yet God is a God of peace. Jesus came to bring peace. St. Francis of Assisi was the example of peace. If you want peace, you must be the bearer of it.


Are you the bearer of peace in your little corner of the world? Do you get tired of reading and hearing about war, about people hurting others? I do. How do you bring peace? Do you use Facebook or other social media outlets to exact revenge on another? Do you go out of your way to make someone miserable because "they started it?" Can YOU be the one who ends it? Please end it. Just make peace with it, even if just in your heart, then be done with it. Life is too short to carry grudges and past hurts. That baggage is too heavy. Just put it down and let it go. There are so many examples of people who brought peace in our history. Mother Teresa, St. Francis, St. Therese, even in our current past, Pope John Paul 2, was the epitome of peace.  

There is such an environment of hate in the world today. Instead of seeking retribution, seek peace. You can be the impetus of change. Make it happen!

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 darkness, light.

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.