The Seldom Interrupted Peace

I have been reflecting on the idea of peace a lot the last few months. To work backwards from the more abstract version of what I've come to, it boils down to the central truth that "God's will is our peace" (pretty good huh? it's not my original. got it from Fr. Dunne class).

Along with that, at the heart of my faith, I have embraced the ideal of perfect freedom, an ideal that Christ embodied for us. Since Christ's will was exactly aligned with the Father's will, he maintained his freedom and perfected it in freely willing actions that were God's will. Now the thing about ideals is that we are not perfect and cannot really achieve perfection. However, we are called as Christians to emulate Jesus as best we can.

As with the relation between little discernments and big-picture discernment, the journey to peace--longer periods of sustained peace and feelings of more profound peace--involves the sum of smaller things as well. I would suggest three areas were the pieces of the peace puzzle can come into focus.

On the simplest level, some times in life are teeming with blessings whereas others seem comparatively sparse. First off, the key is that life is never without grace or blessings, but as humans, we fall into the trap of seeking to quantify these kinds of things.

One of my rules of thumb in reflection and introspection is to allow my honest feelings to surface and address them rather than deny my instinct entirely. So I allow myself to have this very human feeling but try to minimize the time that I dwell on the perceived dearth. I usually am not in this kind of valley--either my life is satisfactorily full of blessings or my disposition is such that I am usually contented with the blessings in my life. Perhaps these things are one in the same.

Regardless, the embrace of the already-present blessings and of a disposition to find at least contentment--hopefully happiness or joy--helps to build the peace. The second piece here is a comfortable disposition to appreciate and give thanks for the blessings God has already given.

The way that I have settled into that is with a special capstone to all my personal prayers. Regardless of the time of day or what I'm praying over, anytime I spend a significant amount of time in prayer, I conclude with my phrase, "Thank you for all that You've given me and all You will give me."

This Sunday's gospel on the rich man and Lazarus teaches us that we should not demand of God specific inspirations or proofs, especially when we are so unappreciative of the revelation and truth already given us. I don't have the quick fix way to transform one's outlook, but I found that making this sentiment integral to my prayer to be a big help.

The third thing is the hardest: having an eye to grace. I learned powerfully back in April the ways that we can fail to see the grace that is so active in daily life. The charism of stop-think-pray helps to slow life down a bit, but succeeding in having those moments is tough. This is another ideal where the hoped-for perfection is noticing every grace as it happens.

The realistic starting point is cultivating an awareness that identifies grace soon after its impact, hopefully beginning with nightly reflections back upon the day's blessings. Even if we cannot identify every grace and cannot find it until well after its help has come, we can let our prayer and reflection unpack the profundity of the grace in life. Rather than seeking systematic, timely awareness, we can simply hope to be formed strongly by the grace we do realize and give God thanks.

Going to mass, having quiet prayer, Adoring the Eucharist, enjoying the love of community, and talking with close friends are some of the ways that I maintain my outlook and experience blessings and grace. None of these things--and few things in my life--exclude God; at the very least, each thing allows the opportunity for God to impact it.

Peace is content and humble harmony between one's view of love at a certain moment and the truth that God is Love. Giving thanks for my blessings, maintaining a positive outlook, and keeping an eye to God's grace are parts of my life--things that flow naturally, not constructs that I've imposed on life--that make up my seldomly interrupted peace.