Over a decade ago, sparked by my distress over the United States starting two wars in the Middle East, I began inviting friends and family to pray with me a Novena for Peace during the holiday season. Some might—and some have—called this a naïve gesture that won’t make a difference. Given the social unrest at home and the conflicts worldwide, that logic seems right. If you do a search on “war torn countries 2012” the stories of rape, torture, economic disaster, and displacement are staggering in their number and variety. If you search “countries at war 2012” you can find a list of all the countries currently at war on a website called Wars in the World. Currently there are 60 countries and over 360 militia/separatist/cartel/anarchist groups at war.
In all of this, it is hard to imagine that any individual who prays for peace could have any effect. But I persist in believing that is wrong. I believe that a single individual can be a catalyst for peace. So does Gregg Braden, author of The Divine Matrix. In his book, he said that it takes only the square root of 1% of a given population to be the spark that changes everything because a change in one of us has the power to create change in all of us. Braden states that, as great teachers both modern and ancient have said, we are truly all One and we are connected by a matrix that ensures the actions of one reverberate in all. He cites the likes of Mother Theresa, Ghandi, Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandella as modern examples as well as Jesus, the Buddha, and the ancient teachers in Native cultures from the past. That we have yet to achieve peace has more to do with the rest of us than the teachers we follow. We simply don’t believe we can make a difference.
Yet study after study proves prayer is a powerful catalyst for change. I can attest to that personally. It doesn’t make logical sense, but it is true. Prayer works. Perhaps the only thing missing is coordination of individual hearts in prayer. By Braden’s calculations[i], it would only take 8,000 people out of the 6 billion on Earth right now to be the catalyst, the spark that ignites to change human consciousness to turn away from war and toward peace. Think of it! If only 8,000 people world-wide focused their prayers together, we could have a real chance at changing the world.
In the next couple of days, I will be posting my Novena for Peace. If you begin to pray it on December 13, you will have nine days of prayer and reflection focused on how you are a catalyst for peace before Christmas Eve. Usually I just send the email out and hope for the best, but this year, I will encourage your prayer with a short post each day to help those joining me in the Novena to pray “in community.” Maybe that is what I’ve been missing all these years; a community of like-minded souls who will take time daily to focus together on peace.
We are each so much more powerful than we believe. When we join our hearts together, we can be among the 8,000 needed to create peace. It doesn’t have to be in some far off time. It can be now.