Live in Peace?

[Lady_Love]

As Catholics we are called to lead the “Way of Peace.” How can we lead the way if we do not know “the Way”?

“I Am the Way…”
“Peace, I leave with you, My peace I give you.”

I find it very disturbing that as Catholics we are stirring with so much turmoil. It reminds me of the scripture that says, “They will cry “Peace, peace!” but there is no peace.” We really have to train ourselves NOT to worry. Our obsessive worrying is a sign of our lack of faith. If the whole world is in unrest it is probably because the children of God are in unrest.

“How can salt season if it loses it’s flavor?” How can we lead others to peace if we do not know it ourselves? We may have crazy lives and have our hearts invested in so many things, things that we can lose, things that die, things that change, etc. but If we are to find peace we must invest our hearts in God alone. We know our hearts are invested in God when we have no fear. We have no fear because God’s love never waivers, God’s protection never ceases, God never changes. He is the ROCK that never moves. He is the God that never lets go of our hand, even if we let go.

I am so guilty of living in fear. I finally asked myself, “Why are you so afraid?” The things that were causing my fear were attachments to things that don’t really matter in the end.

What I want to know is…When you are at peace, what are you thinking? When you are at peace, what are you doing? Are you painting, working, resting, eating? When you are fearful, what are you thinking? When you are fearful, what are you doing?

I need help sometimes remaining in peace, so I think it is helpful for me to hear what others do to remain in the Peace of Christ.

 

[Pitcharan]

As Catholics we are called to lead the “Way of Peace.” How can we lead the way if we do not know “the Way”?

“I Am the Way…”
“Peace, I leave with you, My peace I give you.”
…
I need help sometimes remaining in peace, so I think it is helpful for me to hear what others do to remain in the Peace of Christ.

It is easier to help others than help ourselves. Forget yourself and attend to others who are disturbed. The you will bring peace to them and yourself as well.

It is a complex mystery: helping others is more effective than helping self. Interceding for others is more effective than praying for self.

An Islamic saying very popular with all people in my country, translates as: Only that life is complete which is lived for another.

Also recall the famous prayer of St. Francis of Assisi:

Lord, make me a channel of thy peace;
that where there is hatred, I may bring love;
that where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness;
that where there is discord, I may bring harmony;
that where there is error, I may bring truth;
that where there is doubt, I may bring faith;
that where there is despair, I may bring hope;
that where there are shadows, I may bring light;
that where there is sadness, I may bring joy.
Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted;
to understand, than to be understood;
to love, than to be loved.
For it is by self-forgetting that one finds.
It is by forgiving that one is forgiven.
It is by dying that one awakens to eternal life.
Amen

 

[AlanFromWichita]

How can we lead others to peace if we do not know it ourselves?

This is sure true. We actually lose our peace, arguing about things – including peace.

If we have peace that comes and goes with situations that bring us comfort in the world, we know it is not the peace of Christ. The peace Jesus gave us stays with us at all times, and gets us through our downs and shares in our ups, making everything all that much better. The world gives conditional peace with good conditions; peace from Christ is unconditional.

I am so guilty of living in fear. I finally asked myself, “Why are you so afraid?” The things that were causing my fear were attachments to things that don’t really matter in the end.

That is such a blessing, to come to that realization. Even if we still feel attached, just to know what those obstacles are puts you in a great position.

What I want to know is…When you are at peace, what are you thinking? When you are at peace, what are you doing? Are you painting, working, resting, eating? When you are fearful, what are you thinking? When you are fearful, what are you doing?

I need help sometimes remaining in peace, so I think it is helpful for me to hear what others do to remain in the Peace of Christ.

I am now at peace at all times, doing all the things you listed, since I started counting myself as healed, in October. A couple days I swung a little sad or melancholic, but nothing deep and it lasted only an hour or so. I used to have a great deal of turmoil, with sever bipolar disorder and everything. It was totally disabling since 2001, until this October. The storm was over several months before, but there was still damaged goods to purge and that’s what took me until October to complete. Then all of a sudden it was like something snapped, but there was no sound. It was October 3, early afternoon, and suddenly all my anxiety just drained away. It was amazing. I’m more motivated to do things that need to be done, social situations have become a breeze instead of a trial, just keep getting closer emotionally and mentally with wife and kids, etc. Even tasks that are no fun supposedly, are no problem any more – using very much like a Mary Poppins mentality in the song Spoonful of Sugar.

Then there are the Beatitudes. They just come alive. Starting with spiritual poverty being the ticket to the kingdom. Then the knowing that blessings do actually come in every form, and if we also give blessings to people in trouble, generally doing acts of mercy, then God uses our very lifestyle to bless others according to the same Beatitutudes. So it’s like benefiting from them in multiple ways. You can give or receive according to them, and it’s all blessing.

It even reminded me of some of the stanzas of the soul, from Dark Night of the Soul. This is what it felt like on October 3. From St. John of the Cross: Stanzas of the Soul

1. Upon my flowering breast
   which I kept wholly for him alone,
   there he lay sleeping,
   and I caressing him
   there in a breeze from the fanning cedars.
   

    7. When the breeze blew from the turret,
    as I parted his hair,
    it wounded my neck
    with its gentle hand,
    suspending all my senses.
   
    8. I abandoned and forgot myself,
    laying my face on my Beloved;
    all things ceased; I went out from myself,
    leaving my cares
    forgotten among the lilies.

My cares are very much forgotten among the lilies. I still have a few triggers with some energy in them, but they process themselves almost as fast as they come in.

Alan

 

[nuntym]

+JMJ+

To have peace, you must have joy, because peace is the perfection of joy.

Now the perfection of joy is peace in two respects. First, as regards freedom from outward disturbance; for it is impossible to rejoice perfectly in the beloved good, if one is disturbed in the enjoyment thereof; and again, if a man’s heart is perfectly set at peace in one object, he cannot be disquieted by any other, since he accounts all others as nothing; hence it is written (Psalm 118:165): “Much peace have they that love Thy Law, and to them there is no stumbling-block,” because, to wit, external things do not disturb them in their enjoyment of God. Secondly, as regards the calm of the restless desire: for he does not perfectly rejoice, who is not satisfied with the object of his joy. Now peace implies these two things, namely, that we be not disturbed by external things, and that our desires rest altogether in one object.

— , I-II, q. 70, a. 3.Summa Theologica

In summary, if you have joy that can never be taken away from you, then you will have peace.

And in fact, each and every Christian has a source of joy that can never be taken away, by merit of his/her Baptism, and strengthened by his/her Confirmation.

Now a divine person is said to belong to another, either by origin, as the Son belongs to the Father; or as possessed by another. But we are said to possess what we can freely use or enjoy as we please: and in this way a divine person cannot be possessed, except by a rational creature united to God. Other creatures can be moved by a divine person, not, however, in such a way as to be able to enjoy the divine person, and to use the effect thereof.

---- , I, q. 38, a. 1Summa Theologica

I know I posted this already in another thread, but this really is one very enlightening excerpt from St. Thomas’ writings. He says, in effect, that one can enjoy a divine person (i.e. the Holy Spirit) and use the effect thereof! And yet we know that God is the Perfect Beatitude, i.e. the one thing that, if you possess, will make you supremely and perfectly happy. God is, in essence, Heaven.

Therefore, each and every Christian has Perfect Joy in them! And yet how miserable most of them are!

They’re like the family of immigrants on a ship from Europe to America. They were so poor that they had to spend almost all their money on the ticket, and what they had left over for food was only enough to buy bread and cheese. So for the first couple of days all they ate was cheese sandwiches. Then the little boy said to his father, “Daddy, please, can I have money for an ice cream cone, just this once? I hate cheese sandwiches!” His father said, “We have almost no money left. And cheese sandwiches will keep you alive till we get to New York. Once we’re there, there are golden streets and everybody’s rich.” The boy wouldn’t stop asking, so his father finally gave him some change for an ice cream cone and waited. The boy didn’t come back for two hours. His father was getting worried when the boy finally came back with a fat tummy and a smile on his face. “Did you get your ice cream cone?” “Oh, sure, Dad. And then another one, and then a steak, and then apple pie.” “What? You bought all that with the money I gave you?” “Oh, no, Dad. It’s free. It comes with the ticket!”

…A lot of Christians are living on spiritual cheese sandwiches, when steak is offered.

---- Peter Kreeft, “The Dynamite in Prayer”

The Gift to us by the Father and the Son that is the Holy Spirit allows us to enjoy God through prayer. In fact, I am getting more and more convinced that enjoying God is the MAIN reason for prayer. And once you taste this joy, and see that this joy is one that can never be taken away from you, but can always----ALWAYS!----be enjoyed anytime, anywhere, and is superior to all others, then you will find peace.