“Seek peace and pursue it.” This challenge from the Rule of Saint Benedict is so quiet that the brazen words of war often drown it out. Of course, real peace must always begin in our often conflicted hearts and in our relationship with family, friends, and strangers. But this simple sentence also calls us all to the daunting task of helping to make peace between nations. We hear every day that countries around the world, including our own, are building ever more powerful weapons of war, to defend against neighbors who are doing the same. We are using human resources—intelligence, creativity, bravery—to make war rather than to provide food, shelter, health care, and education for our fellow humans. Our resources could safeguard rather than destroy the natural world. Like brave people in every age, we must now insist that though peace is often elusive and hidden by the devastation of war, it is always there, a shining treasure, waiting for us.

By Mara Faulkner, OSB