Dear One

Today (September 21st) marks World Peace Day as established by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1981. Let us go forth today and honor this intention as a collective for it is in union that we become one people. I invite you all to take a moment today and send up a prayer for Peace – within our hearts – for this is where it begins. Just think – as each of you opens this email and reads this today and in the days to come - we begin a meditation, a chant, and we sing a collective song. Let us go forward then, in heart, and touch one another with the Grace that is given us, always…

May creatures all abound in weal and peace May all be blessed with peace always. Let none cajole or flout his fellow anywhere Let none wish others harm In dudgeon or hate. Just as with her own life, a mother Shields from hurt her own, her only child, Let all-embracing thoughts for all that lives be thine- An all-embracing love for all the universe In all its heights and depths and breadth Unstinted love, unmarred by hate within… -The Sutta Nipata Sutra

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 darkness, light; And 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. -Saint Francis of Assisi

O God who art Peace everlasting, Whose chosen reward is the gift of peace, And who has taught us that the peacemakers are Thy children, Pour Thy sweet peace into our souls, That everything discordant may utterly vanish, and all that makes for peace Be sweet for us forever. - Galasian

To forgive our brother is to forgive Ourselves – We abandon our revenge; Our lives have seen suffering enough. We are tired and worn out with Ourselves – If I take revenge, it will be the cause; The effect will follow me into my next life. Look into the mirror; see the compassion in your heart. Avoid all resentment and hatred for Mankind. -Le Ly Hayslip

~And finally…. ~

Be at peace with your own Soul, Then heaven and earth will be at peace with you. Enter eagerly into the treasure house that is within you, You will see the things that are in heaven; For there is but one single entry to them both. The ladder that leads to the Kingdom is hidden within your Soul… Dive into yourself, and in your Soul you will discover The stairs by which to ascend. -Saint Isaac of Nineveh