Peace of God

Gregg’s Reflection

When I began to meditate in 1982, the phrase I used as my mantra was: My peace I give to you. I would repeat that as I breathed in, and Jesus, give me your peace, as I exhaled. The phrase was drawn from John 14:27 below.

At the time, I was 31 years old, father of two, recently baptized, and peace was sorely lacking in my life. I read that promise of Jesus, but had not experienced it. Genie and I had been married a decade, our two children were 7 and 4, and I was working hard in the family business to make ends meet.

I was learning how to be a good Lutheran, but a deep commitment to prayer and Bible study were still many years away. So, life was a choppy sea, and I was deeply yearning for some stability, some peace.

Today, I live in peace. I think the greatest thing I offer my family, my friends, and my coaching clients is my inner stillness, my peace. St Seraphin said, “Acquire interior peace and a multitude of men will find their salvation near you.” Isn’t that an amazing statement? Can we believe that our interior peace can touch others? May these words help you along the God’s faint path to inner peace.

Scripture

Agree with God and be at peace...Receive instruction from his mouth and lay up his words in your heart. Job 22:21-22

You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you. Those of steadfast mind you keep in peace-in peace because they trust in you. Isaiah 26:3

I will listen to what the Lord God is saying; for you speak peace to your faithful people and to those who turn their hearts to you. Psalm 85:8

By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. Luke 1:78-79

Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid. John 14:27 

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13

Rejoice in the Lord always. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Phillippians  4:4-8

Pursue peace with everyone, and the holiness without which no one will see God. Hebrews 12:14

May the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in all ways. The Lord be with all of you. 2 Thessalonians 3:16

Ancient Writings

Our soul will finally become wise when she is quiet and peaceful. This is constant rest and security, if a person is freed from the continual storms and winds of this world and lifts up her eyes and heart from earth to God, and draws near to God with her mind.

St. Cyprian, Bernard McGinn, Essential Writings of Christian Mysticism, p. 279

Acquire interior peace and a multitude of men will find their salvation near you. 

St. Seraphin, A Russian Orthodox Saint

I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me and I burned for your peace.

Augustine of Hippo

Before you speak of peace, you must first have it in your heart.

Francis of Assisi

There is a way of life vastly richer and deeper than all this hurried existence, a life of serenity, peace and power. 

Thomas R Kelly, A Testament of Devotion, p. vii-viii

Modern Writings

If our thoughts are kind, peaceful and quiet, turned only toward good, then we also influence ourselves and radiate peace all around us. When we labor in the fields of the Lord, we create harmony. Divine harmony, peace and quiet spread everywhere. When we breed negative thoughts, that is a great evil. When there is evil in us, we radiate it among our family members, and wherever we go...Destructive thoughts destroy the stillness within and then we have no peace.

Serbian monk Thaddeus of Vitnovica, Our Thoughts Determine our Lives, St Herman of the Alaska Brotherhood, p. 63

I have no words to express the ever fresh treasures of strength, of light, and of peace that are constantly made available to me by the fundamental vision of Christ in all things.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Heart of the Matter, p. 202

Violence rests on the assumption that the enemy and I are entirely different: the enemy is evil and I am good. The enemy must be destroyed but I must be saved. But love sees things differently. It sees that even the enemy suffers from the same sorrows and limitations that I do. That we both have the same hopes, the same needs, the same aspiration for peaceful and harmonious human life. And that death is the same for both of us. Then love may perhaps show me that my brother is not really my enemy and that war is both his enemy and mine. War is our enemy. Then peace becomes possible.

Thomas Merton, preface to Vietnamese edition of No Man is an Island

In many countries where I have taught, people watched my eyes, my smile (or lack of it), my gestures, my neediness, my peace (or lack of it), and that became the primary message that affected them or disaffected them-much more than my theologizing and my sermons. If my expressions and energy were off, my teaching was largely a waste of time.

Richard Rohr, Eager to Love, P. 199-200

As I grow older, I discover more and more that the greatest gift I have to offer is my own joy of living, my own inner peace, my own silence and solitude, my own sense of well-being.

Henri Nouwen, Nouwen Society Daily Devotion 11/28/20

It is so important for the people around you to see that peace of Christ reflected in your eyes, your hands, and your words. There is more power in that than in all your teaching and organizing.

Henri Nouwen, Nouwen Society Daily Devotion 11/23/20

When we radiate the peace of Christ we are peacemakers, and then our peace action can witness to this inner peace. But without that inner peace our actions easily become instruments of the powers of war and destruction.

Henri Nouwen, Nouwen Society Daily Devotion, 11/14/20