Until I am one with God I can never have true rest nor peace.

~ Julian of Norwich (c.1342 – c.1416) ~
Julian is venerated as a saint by Anglicans and Lutherans.

Statue of Julian to the left of the main door to Norwich Cathedral (Anglican) and of St Benedict to the right.

Where does true education in peace and justice take place? First of all, in the family, since parents are the first educators. The family is the primary cell of society; “it is in the family that children learn the human and Christian values which enable them to have a constructive and peaceful coexistence. It is in the family that they learn solidarity between the generations, respect for rules, forgiveness and how to welcome others.” (1) The family is the first school in which we are trained in justice and peace. Pope Benedict XVI, Message for World Day of Peace 2012.

‘Wisdom,’ the Master said, ‘is simply the ability to recognize.’ “’recognize what?’ the disciple asked. ‘Spiritual wisdom,’ the Master said, ‘is the ability to recognize the butterfly in a caterpillar, the eagle in an egg, the saint in a sinner.”’

~ Sufi Tale ~

The love of God comes to us through all creatures but hidden as it is in the Blessed Sacrament…

The most holy of lives is a mysterious thing because of its very simplicity and apparently humble state. What a festival and never-ending feast is ours! God ceaselessly gives himself and is received with no pomp and circumstance, but hidden beneath all that is weak and foolish and worthless. He chooses what our natural feelings despise and what our human prudence rejects. From these castoffs he creates miracles of love and gives himself to us as often as we believe we have found him there.

Jean-Pierre de Caussade SJ (1675 – 1751), Abandonment to Divine Providence

If our culture can be described as our ‘window on the world,’ then we need to accept that there are endless windows on the world. Other societies have their windows on the world. There are endless ways of perceiving reality and responding to it – all of which have their own validity.

~ Peter Leonard (1933 – 2003), Yeast in the Dough ~

Fr Leonard, a Columban, spent most of his life as a priest in the Philippines and was a pioneer in the formation of lay leaders in Mindanao. He is buried in Ozamiz City.

In a dialogue of life, there is no superiority or inferiority, either in religion or culture. Everyone is on equal footing. There must be a basic respect for the other person. There is no conversion or any attempt under any guise to convert or weaken the faith of the other person – only to convert people to God. We come as ‘learners’ and also as ‘servants’ of the community.

~ Bishop Bienvenido S. Tudtud (1931- 1987) ~

Bishop ‘Benny’ Tudtud, born in Mabolo, Cebu City, was the first Bishop of the then Prelature of Iligan and the first Bishop of the Prelature of Marawi. A great friend of the Columbans, he died in a plane crash on a flight from Manila to Baguio on 26 June 1987.

In that first ‘fusion’ with Jesus (Holy Communion), it was my Heavenly Mother again who accompanied me to the altar for it was she herself who placed her Jesus into my soul.

~ St Thérèse of Lisieux (1873 – 1897 )~

In the world as it is, torn with agonies and dissensions, we need some direction for our souls which is never away from us; which, without enslaving us or narrowing our vision, enters into every detail of our life. Everyone longs for some such inward rule, a universal rule as big as the immeasurable law of love, yet as little as the narrowness of our daily routine. It must be so truly part of us all that it makes us all one, and yet to each one the secret of his own life with God.

To this need, the imitation of Our Lady is the answer; in contemplating her we find intimacy with God, the law which is the lovely yoke of the one irresistible love.

~ Caryll Houselander (1901-1954), The Reed of God ~