TODAY’S WORD…

Put things in order, encourage one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.

– 2 Corinthians 13:11

REFLECTION…

We are exhorted to be united in spirit and to live in harmony and peace. When Christians love each other they have reason to expect that the God of love will be with them. When Christians live in peace, they may expect that the God of peace will dwell with them.

On the other hand, in conflict and discord we have no reason to expect His presence. It is only when we are willing to lay aside all bitterness, that we may expect the God of peace to abide in us.

Where neither peace nor love is to be found, there God cannot be.

QUOTE…

“’Live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you’, for God is a God of love and a God of peace, and in these He takes His delight. It is love that will give you peace and remove every evil…”

– St. John Chrysostom

PRAYER…

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.

Amen.

[The Peace Prayer of St. Francis]