Peace by Peace

Only a great venture of faith, humility, and love can solve the problem of the fate of Christendom.

~ Max Josef Metzger, Priest and Martyr (1887 – 1944) ~

Further reading: Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Max Josef Metzger and the idea of a Council

 

It appears that the moment has come when we can no longer remain inactive without endangering the salvation of souls, and without banishing the intellectual strength which is bound up with it; it appears that by moving forward we can win many more souls.

~ Marie-Joseph Lagrange OP, Dominican Founder of the École Biblique (1855 – 1938) ~

Assassinated while celebrating Mass 24 March 1980

We have never preached violence, except the violence of love, which left Christ nailed to a cross, the violence that we must each do to ourselves to overcome our selfishness and such cruel inequalities among us. The violence we preach is not the violence of the sword, the violence of hatred. It is the violence of love, of brotherhood, the violence that wills to beat weapons into sickles for work.

~ The Violence of Love, Oscar Arnulfo Romero, Archbishop and Martyr of San Salvador (1917 – 1980) ~

Christ be with me,
Christ before me,
Christ behind me,
Christ beneath me,
Christ above me,
Christ on my right,
Christ on my left,
Christ where I lie,
Christ where I sit,
Christ where I arise,
Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks to me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.

Read more here.

~ St Patrick, Apostle to Ireland (c.389 – 461) ~

Slemish, County Antrim, Ireland, where St Patrick is reputed to have worked as a shepherd while a slave

 

Maybe I’m not making big changes in the world, but if I have somehow helped or encouraged somebody along the journey then I’ve done what I’m called to do.


~ Sister Thea Bowman FSPA, African-American Franciscan (1937 – 1990) ~


Pastor Trocmé and his wife Magda

Nonviolence was not a theory superimposed upon reality; it was an itinerary that we explored day after day in communal prayer and in obedience to the commands of the Spirit.

~ André Trocmé, Protestant Pastor of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon in south-central France (1901 – 1971) ~


Peace demands the most heroic labor and the most difficult sacrifice. It demands greater heroism than war. It demands greater fidelity to the truth and a much more perfect purity of conscience.

Thomas Merton, in religious life Father Louis OCSO, 1915-1968 ~

 

Under no trials let us fall,
by no sorrow let us be broken,
by no struggle worn out,
by no flattery diverted from our task.
May no trial, no tribulation,
no oppression, no hunger, no poverty
no death, nothing sad, nothing sweet, nothing unjust, nothing fair,
may none of the world’s vanities separate us from Christ
so that we may abide with him
forever and ever. Amen

~ St Columban (c.540 – 615) Sermon IV ~