Day 6: As far as it depends on you
If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone (Romans 12:18).
What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight... (James 4:1-2).
O Prince of Peace, we long for peace—from the other person, and from those "out there"—neighbors, communities, nations... But let peace begin with me—in my home, in my relationships, in my interactions, in my circle. By Your Spirit, let me live the radical love and peace You taught in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7).
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.
~ La Clochette ~ 1912 (Often attributed to Francis of Assisi)
"And on earth peace" they [the angels] sang. Men had been quarrelling and fighting then, and men are quarrelling and fighting now. That little babe in the manger was come to show them how and why they were all to be at peace with each other.
For what causes all the war and quarrelling in the world, but selfishness? Selfishness breeds pride, passion, spite, revenge, covetousness, oppression. The strong care for themselves, and try to help themselves at the expense of the weak, by force and tyranny; the weak care for themselves in their turn, and try to help themselves at the expense of the strong, by cunning and cheating.
No one will condescend, give way, sacrifice his own interest for his neighbour's, and hence come wars between nations, quarrels in families, spite and grudges between neighbours. But in the example of that little child of Bethlehem, Jesus Christ the Lord, God was saying to men, "Acquaint yourselves with Me, and be at peace."
~ Charles Kingsley ~ 1819-1875
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