Quadrupani

One of my favorite little treasure books is called Light and Peace by R.P. Quadrupani.  Its sub-title says, "Instructions for devout souls to dispel their doubts and allay their fears."

Quadrupani wrote this in Chapter XIV about interior peace:

     "Be on your guard lest your zeal degenerate into anxiety and eagerness. St. Francis de Sales was a most pronounced enemy of these two defects. They cause us to lose sight of God in our actions and make us very prone to impatience if the slightest obstacle should interfere with our designs. It is only by acting peacefully that we can serve the God of peace in an acceptable manner.

     Do not let us suffer our peace to be disturbed by precipitation in our exterior actions. When our bodies or minds are engaged in any work we should perform it peacefully and with composure, not prescribing for ourselves a definite time to finish it, nor being too anxious to see it completed.

     Martha was engaged in a good work when she prepared a repast for our divine Lord, nevertheless He reproved her because she performed it with anxiety and this goes to show, says Saint Francis de Sales, that it is not enough to do the good, the good must moreover be done well, that is to say with love and tranquility. If one turns the spinning-wheel too rapidly it falls and the thread breaks.

     Whenever we are doing well we are always doing enough and doing it sufficiently fast. Those persons who are restless and impetuous do not accomplish anymore and what they do is done badly.

     Saint Francis de Sales was never seen in a hurry no matter how varied or numerous might be the demands made upon his time. When on a certain occasion some surprise was expressed at this he said: "You ask me how it is that although others are agitated and flurried I am not likewise uneasy and in haste. What would you? I was not put in this world to cause fresh disturbance: is there not enough of it already without my adding to it by my excitability?"

Have a wonderful week-end!
Grace & peace,

Sheila

Eternal life

“No one is good but God alone,” You said.
And then you “looked at him and loved him.” Mk 10:18,21

You look and you love. Teach me how to look with love.

How did you show that love?

"With eyes of compassion," I heard you say in that still small voice.
"I heard the desire of the rich man’s heart. I longed for him to receive his desire for eternal life. That is the reason I came."

What more, dearest Lord,  must I understand?

“Anything that keeps one from being single-hearted must be given up,” You say.

O Jesus, You were human and divine—

how did you endure the hatred, indifference,

apathy, hostility, persecution, passion, and death?

“My Father’s love kept me going.”

People were constantly challenging you, and yet

you spoke with such love and were always prepared
with the right answers.

How did you do that, O Savior?

"My Father’s voice—I could hear my Father’s voice

and He told me everything I needed to know."

Jesus, You amaze me the way you spoke the truth with such love.

Teach me, I beg you, to do the same. To be more like You.

You were remarkably strong and stood so firm.

You rebuked even Peter upon whom the church would be built.

I want to accept the cross more fully in my life, O Lord.

I want to trust more than I ever have, love more than ever,

speak the truth more than I ever have…like You!

O let me not be ashamed of you and your doctrine of the cross.

Take pity on me, O Lord.

I beg you for more grace to see where I am blind,

to hear where I am deaf, to trust where I doubt,

to remember when I have forgotten, to understand when I do not.

Teach me to have greater faith.

To see that you are the bread of life

who longs to feed all of your people.

You who alone satisfies the hungry hearts.

You say, "No one who comes to me shall ever be hungry;"

All that the Father gives me shall come to me." Jn 6 : 35-39

We come to You, Lord.

Do I hear you saying, “The Father has given us to You?”

It is His will, you say, that what He has given you will not be lost…

but rather have eternal life.

O Father, what a glorious life you have prepared for us!

Give me an unquenchable desire for your flesh and blood

so that I may remain in You and You in me. Jn 6 :56

And I may know this eternal life.

Eucalyptus

The grapevine wreath lay before me. Fresh eucalyptus branches oozed their scent permeating the air. Pruning shears clipped individual stems. Each one was placed strategically into the curved and twisted grapevine. Discards were thrown to the side ready to be disposed. I looked at the last discard and looked again. That was not trash.

There He was. Leaves formed His crown, his arms outstretched, even the wound in His side was visible. This nothing became something. Beyond proportions ever imagined the little piece of assumed waste became sacred. Something beyond was present. A lesson on the epitome of humility.

"Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God

something to be grasped, but made himself nothing,

taking the very nature of a servant,

being made in human likeness. Phil 2: 5-7

It only seemed appropriate to place it in the center of the wreath. Like Him in the center of my life. With reverence it was given its position of honor on the front door of our home.

Weeks passed. While cleaning the window panes on the inside one Saturday I noticed a substance dripping from the eucalyptus cross. It spilled out over the ribbon and flowers on the wreath with streaks running down the door to the ground below.

"And being found in

appearance as a man,

he humbled himself and became obedient to death--

even death on a cross!" Phil 2:8

How could this substance cry out to me, "I died for you?"

Stunned, I fell to my knees.

"Therefore God exalted him

to the highest place

and gave him the name that

is above every name,

that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

in heaven and on earth and under the earth," Phil 2:9-10

The value of the little piece I was going to throw away took on monumental worth. When friends heard the story, lessons on the blood covenant were shared.

Years later it has its place of honor on our dining room buffet reminding me that something can be made of nothing. And especially that Jesus, Our Lord, humbled himself to the wood of the cross.

"and every tongue confess that

Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father." Phil 2:11

Sr. Pascaline Coff, O.S.B.

Today's Woman of Peace is Sr. Pascaline Coff, O.S.B., a treasured friend, whom I met over thirty years ago when she came to Tulsa, OK to establish a new monastery called "Osage Forest of Peace" inspired by her experience in India. Ever since I've known her she's radiated extraordinary peace. This is her 60 year jubilee of religious vows.

Here is what she shared with us about peace:

     "Peace, I learned years ago, is the 'tranquility of order' according to St. Augustine. But tranquility and order are not easy to come by today if they ever were. We often find ourselves in the midst of disorder and anything but tranquility. Peace is not a virtue you and I can practice. Rather it is a fruit of the virtue of love which we are commanded to practice. Charity according to its very nature causes peace. Peace is an act of charity therefore it’s fruit is one of Christ’s beatitudes. And the beatitudes are described by St. Thomas as 'perfect acts of virtue'.

     When the Lord summed up the greatest of all the commandments He gave us only one: 'to love God with our whole heart and mind and soul, and our neighbor as ourselves.' Mt 23:37 Charity causes peace precisely because it is love of God and neighbor. There is no other virtue except charity whose proper act is peace. 

     When our heart is not at peace we need to discern the cause. More often than not, we do not have what we want. Our God-given sensitive and rational appetites are not one, and the union of such movements is essential to peace, my peace, your peace – world peace. As we read even just the headlines in our daily papers, or hear a bit of the news at night we realize that our world is not at peace. But from all we have considered thus far, it is obvious, if we want peace it must begin deep within you and me. Therefore, there is great need for silence and stillness and welcoming places to come apart and meditate regularly.

     Many years ago the Lord directed me to just one such place in a Forest in S. India. It was in fact called 'The Forest of Peace' where the beatitude of charity was tangibly PEACE.  It was a Christian monastic ashram and the monks provided a welcoming presence for all who arrived – where peace was truly 'flowing like a river.' People pilgrimaged from all parts of the universe to meditate, to listen to holy reading and conferences, and to try to reform within themselves their efforts to enable the divine to manifest through them in perfect love before returning to their respective homes in true peace. May we all find and honor such places so that the fire of Love may be evermore enkindled in our world and the TRANQUILITY OF ORDER, P E A C E may abound in all hearts everywhere.

     As Easter looms large on the horizon once again, and we prepare anew for Resurrection, His and ours, let us listen to Christ’s first recorded word on that gloriously Wondrous Morning: 'PEACE! And the women came up and embraced His feet…' Mt 28:9"                                                    

Peace as fruit

The Catechism of the Catholic Church has four primary references to peace, and I want to focus on the first two today:

• as fruit of the Holy Spirit
• as fruit of love
• disorders threatening freedom to be eliminated (things that threaten peace & cause wars)
• earthly peace as "image of the peace of Christ"

As a fruit of the Holy Spirit

There are many things we can do to nurture interior peace, but for it to take root within us we must be "grafted onto the true vine." It's like planting the seed within the good soil. As the Lord says in the scriptures, "I am the vine, you are the branches." Jn 15:5

"He who has grafted us...will make us bear 'the fruit of the Spirit...love, peace, joy...' " So we are reliant on the power of the Holy Spirit for bearing this fruit and its increase. We can not bear fruit without Him.

As we cooperate with the paschal mystery--the continual dying to self, rising to new life, and going forth in our daily lives we grow more and more in the fruit of the Spirit. Let us continue to pray, "Come, Holy Spirit, increase the fruit of peace within me."

As a fruit of love

"The fruits of charity are joy, peace, and mercy." When we fulfill the two greatest commandments, "Love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength," and "Love your neighbor as yourself," we will experience a beautiful flowering of this fruit in the garden of our souls. These commandments are written in our hearts. "God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." Rom 5:5

We simply need to surrender, submit and obey the Word. We need to do good and be kind. "The Lord asks us to love as he does, even our enemies," to make the marginalized our neighbor, "and...to love the poor as Christ himself."

There are three persons mentioned to love: God, self, and neighbor. I can not love God and neighbor and hate myself. I can not love God and myself and hate or ignore my neighbor. I need to love all three persons. Let us pray, "O God, teach us your true love."

Catechism references are from 736, 1825, 1829, and 1832.

Blessing

The Lord bless you and keep you!

The Lord let his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you!

The Lord look upon you kindly and give you peace! Nm 6:24-26

Merton on Peace

Created for God's Peace 

     "All day I have been waiting for You with my faculties bleeding the poison of unsuppressed activity ... I have waited for Your silence and Your peace to stanch and cleanse them, 0 my Lord.

    You will heal my soul when it pleases You, because I have trusted  in You.

    I will no longer wound myself with the thoughts and questions that have surrounded me like thorns: that is a penance You do not ask of me.

   You have made my soul for Your peace and Your silence, but it is lacerated by the noise of my activity and my desires. My mind is crucified all day by its own hunger for experience, for ideas, for satisfaction. And I do not possess my house in silence.

   But I was created for Your peace and You will not despise my longing for the holiness of Your deep silence. 0 my Lord, You will not leave me forever in this sorrow, because I have trusted in You and I will wait upon Your good pleasure in peace and without complaining any more. This, for Your glory."

From the book Mornings with Thomas Merton