Make Me a Channel of Your Peace

Day 239 of Photo Inspirations -- Make Me a Channel of Your Peace
I love that song -- the lyrics are from St. Francis' Prayer that goes "Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace".  That is sincerely my prayer -- to be a peacemaker AND to live in that peace.

How do we do that when the world is full of clamor and noise and so many distractions -- not to mention cranky, mean-spirited, angry, and unhappy people?

We have to MAKE peace our priority. We have to practice peace. We have to exit the room when conflict presents itself.  It really is a priority.

We can find it sitting in a peaceful scenic area, in a cozy chair, in a chapel, while rocking a sleeping baby OR in a monastery.  A monastery?  Talking about peace ON PURPOSE, I found it yesterday.  It truly is a house of prayer and peace.  I was attending a mini-retreat at St. Joseph's Monastery, but before the retreat started, I was able to visit one of my mentors and dear friend, Sister Marie Pierre.  Oh, how I love this precious saint.  After 50+ years of ministry, she retired and lives in a small space at St. Joseph's but it is everything she hoped for in this season of her life.  We made each other cry as we shared some sweet memories, but even more so about our future.... getting to graduate to heaven. We talked about how our loved ones and the saints and Jesus are cheering us on to the finish line.  I could tell she is longing for the day when she'll go home, but in the meantime, sitting at her feet, feeling God's presence and His peace all around her, and in her, is the season she is in.  God continues to use her to touch our lives.  She has MANY children -- of course, not biologically, but she sure had a hand in raising many of us in the ways we should go.

Before I left her side and headed on to the retreat, she wanted to show me her garden that many of us contributed to when she moved to St. Joseph's.  A labor of love created it for her -- the one that her labor of love touched us so much.   Her garden is her daily retreat -- the water splashing from the fountain, the serene place of peace and quiet where birds and butterflies are abundant.  It's a place of contentment, rest and PEACE.

"You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."  Jeremiah 29:13.  I found Him today in the form of one of His precious daughters. She looked like Him.  She smelled like Him.  She sounded like Him.  That's because she lives with Him in such close proximity.  No wonder I left there wanting more.

"Favor is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that fears the Lord, she shall be praised."  Proverbs 31:30

The song "Make Me a Channel of Your Peace" -- is so befitting of Sister Pierre.  Oh, that we are that peace channel, too!