Peace In Our Hearts
I have long contended that we cannot have peace in the world until we have peace in our hearts. This lesson has been taught by religious leaders across time, faiths, and belief systems. Something that universally taught must be true. If we can learn to experience inner peace, we can recognize our Oneness and in that Oneness we will choose peace.
“The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize at the center of the universe dwells the Great Spirit, and that its center is really everywhere, it is within each of us.”―
Black Elk 1863-1950 Oglala Lakota (Sioux) medicine man who later embraced Catholicism and saw no conflict in, or contradiction between, the spiritual teachings of both.
“The God who existed before any religion counts on you to make the oneness of the human family known and celebrated.” Archbishop Desmond Tutu
“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.” Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta
“World peace must develop from inner peace. Peace is not just mere absence of violence. Peace is, I think, the manifestation of human compassion.” Dalai Lama XIV
“Each one has to find his peace from within. And for peace to be real it must be unaffected by outside circumstances.” Mahatma Gandhi
“Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.” Buddha
And so we continue praying our Novena for Peace becoming conscious of the ways in which we are (or can become) instruments of peace. We also look within to see the ways in which we disturb peace. With conscious attention, to both we learn how to choose peace more often.