Peace / peacemaking

[Rick H.]

I was prompted to think of Matthew 5:9 this morning:



"Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called sons of God."

and, this brought about a desire to read the writings of the Fathers and Saints about peace, and peacemaking.

Hopefully, this thread will be a long term thread and over the years as new folks come in possibly there can be additions that will build a place of blessing.

I don't have anything to offer today from the East, but in the meantime, there is something that I find very helpful in the following, from St. Francis, that may get the ball rolling:





Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.
Where there is hatred let me sow love,
Where there is injury let me sow pardon,
Where there is doubt let me sow faith,
Where there is despair let me give hope,
Where there is darkness let me give light,
Where there is sadness let me give joy.

O Divine Master, grant that
I may not try to be comforted but to comfort,
Not try to be understood but to understand,
Not try to be loved but to love.
Because it is in giving that we receive,
It is in forgiving that we are forgiven,
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

[Anna Stickles]

"For the definition of peace is the harmony of dissonant parts. Once the civil war in our nature is expelled, then, we also, being at peace within ourselves, become peace, and reveal our having taken on the name of Christ (Eph 2:14) as true and authentic." St Gregory of Nyssa

[D. W. Dickens]

When you asked about peacemaking, the prayer of the Optina Elders came to mind (a part of my morning prayers):


O Lord, grant me to greet the coming day in peace.
Help me in all things to rely upon your holy will.
In every hour of the day reveal your will to me.
Bless my dealings with all who surround me.
Teach me to treat all that comes to me throughout the day with peace of soul and with the firm conviction that your will governs all.
In all my deeds and words, guide my thoughts and feelings.
In unforeseen events, let me not forget that all are sent by you.
Teach me to act firmly and wisely, without embittering and embarrassing others.
Give me strength to bear the fatigue of the coming day with all that it shall bring.
Direct my will, teach me to pray, and you, yourself, pray in me, amen.
It is to me a blanket of peace I wrap myself in before I walk out to my car and drive to work. I think if I were to keep praying it all day, I might be incapable of hostility toward my fellow man. But I am weak and have no gift for continual prayer.

Lord have mercy.

[Owen Jones]

I am the world's foremost expert on hostility and violence. Do not despair. You are not alone!!!

[Ryan]

Speaking on a more practical level, I think we should all be proud of the monks of Decani monastery. An article from 1999: http://news2.thdo.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/371687.stm