Lead us from death to life, from falehood to truth. Lead us from despair to hope, from fear to trust. Lead us from hate to love, from war to peace. Let peace fill our lives, our world, our universe. Peace peace peace.
So we say during our Iona Community liturgy each time we meet. It always give me pause, because peace is not wafted down from heaven like some kind of miasma – it requires the consistent work of love. It is so easy to get sucked into cycles of seperation which start to sow the opposite into our lives. So easy to let the screens shield us from the humanity of the other or the visceral toxification of our planet.
What does peace making look like to you? In an age of yet another imperial war, we rightly focus on the big picture, but it is only the small and local that most of us can access or influence. But perhaps this is the point- we start where we are, in the mess of our ordinary. Love is not abstract, it is above all things, local.
Blessed are the peace makers…
Blessed are those whose find themselves
No longer vindicated
By the failure of othersBlessed are those whose borders lie open
And whose cartographers no longer
ConspireBlessed are those who put off
Their badges of office
And reveal who they are
Not who they want to beAnd blessed are those
Who lie down like a bridge
For others to walk uponWhose sinews take the strain
Of two way trafficAnd blessed are those who seek peace
In an age of war
And speak of love
In a time of revengeBlessed are you
Sons and Daughters
Of the Most High GodAgents of
My KingdomFrom ‘Listing’, published by Proost in 2012.
