Daily Meditation for December 8, 2023

In this season, we sing with glad hearts about peace on Earth and goodwill toward all. But as a human community, we seem farther away than ever from this dream. How can we help create this dream? The Rule of Benedict commands, “Seek peace and pursue it.” The place to begin might be within our own hearts, where dissension and even hatred can smolder. But then we must turn to the tragically familiar images of bombed cities and the somber toll of the wounded and dead. What would happen if all of us turned our intelligence, creativity and commitment from the creation of more destructive weapons of war to seeking and pursuing peace, by creating conditions that would make war unthinkable—a relic of a violent past? What if we followed in the footsteps of the Prince of Peace and built a durable peace, a peace that will last?

By Mara Faulkner, OSB