Shining Light into the Darkness
Entering day 3 of the 2017 Peace Novena, I pray that we all embrace our personal power to become instruments of peace in our troubled world. (If you don’t have time for prayer AND reading this post, please choose prayer. Novena rituals and prayer) Make me an instrument of peace The prayer commonly known as the Prayer …
As we enter day 2 of the 2017 Peace Novena, I pray that we all find ways to be kind and to listen with an open heart. (If you don’t have time for prayer and reading this post, choose prayer. Novena rituals and prayer) Suffering Is a Choice Many people are real pain as a …
Day 1 Reflection: Compassion Compassion is a good place to begin nine days of prayer for peace, especially in what I consider a toxic environment of constant negativity and judgment. The “correctness police” who troll the Internet and social media have an opinion about EVERYTHING and often that opinion lacks any hint of compassion. Below …
Like most Americans, I’m grateful that the 2016 political cycle is over. What isn’t over is the anger, angst, and division that marked it. Yet I know that we collectively possess the power to change this discomforting and destructive reality. Compassion, true understanding, and peace are possible. This is not a naïve Pollyanna dream (as I’ve sometimes been …
Rule 4: Manage Stress by Finding Balance and Inner Peace From Opening Hearts: Chapter 5 Five Cardinal Rules for Healthy Living Excessive, chronic stress can literally kill you. Our emotional, mental, and physical response to actual or perceived threats triggers the adrenal glands to release a flood of hormones including cortisol and adrenaline.42 [Footnote 42: …
Our Novena of Peace concludes with the realization that peace is the fruit of love. Love is expressed so many ways large and small. Love is mercy, gratitude, vulnerability, forgiveness, responsibility, awareness, and all the habits we consciously choose that reveal our belief in the sacredness of all life and of our world. It gives …
Mercy flows from response-ability; the ability to respond. This story illustrates how we are intrinsically hardwired to respond to each other: Once there was an elderly couple who delighted in the little boy who lived across the street. They loved his daily visits to play on the tire swing they had put up for their …
Peace is impossible without truth and reconciliation. On December 29, 1890, soldiers of the US Army’s 7th Cavalry massacred 300 Lakota Sioux (including women and children) near Wounded Knee creek on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Tomorrow, December 29, 2015, Lakota elders who are descendants of the original seventy-five survivors (known as Takini) …
Here, then, is the reason for the Jubilee: because this is the time for mercy. It is the favorable time to heal wounds, a time not to be weary of meeting all those who are waiting to see and to touch with their hands the signs of the closeness of God, a time to offer …
Mercy and compassion flow naturally from gratitude. I’ve seen this exemplified in people who have instinctively grateful personalities. One especially inspiring, grateful-by-nature person I’ve observed was Dr. Lester Sauvage. I was lucky enough (and very grateful!) to work with him on his final book Opening Hearts, which was his treatise on everything he found important: …