Peace be with you: Peace is an honor in relations and work; Where there is darkness, light

Peace is an honor in relations and work
God's presence brings honor to humanity. Where ever human life is protected, fostered, and promoted there is God's presence. Adam the father of the entire humanity was the first human being to enjoy Father God's presence. God loved Adam and the entire a humanity very dearly, that he adorned him with freedom. He loved Adam so dearly that he created entire world and the comforts of life before creating Adam. He brought Adam in to the world as a guest to enjoy the comforts with peace. In addition, God honored Adam with the great privilege of naming His creations. He also blessed Adam with His fatherly presence. By this, we know that God treated human with honor and dignity. His presence brings honor to the humanity.

Work and gift of work are God's blessings. Work or the job or the duty and responsibilities go beyond the earning of one's life means. Work is a channel of God's provision for the family and to the society. A job well done with dedication reveals the action of participating in the preservation of this world, and blessing the world with goodness. Work place is a ground where oneself can experience the mighty presence of God, while serving fellow human needs.






Peace to humanity
Let us meditate on bringing humanity to the presence and peace of God. Can we bring all the humanity to God's presence? If so, how can we do that? Is it not the salvation is complete in Jesus Christ incarnation, crucifixion, death, and resurrection? What is the significance of bringing all humanity and the sinners to the presence of God's mercy? Like this, many rational questions may surface our thoughts. Let us meditate these concepts in the light of scripture.

Conversion of souls and salvation of souls belong to God, but every one of us, who live, and who are baptized in Jesus Christ, has the responsibility to bring fellow souls to Jesus Christ, through our life, words, deeds, and witness. There are oceans of mercy in Jesus Christ's passion, which is freely available for the salvation of all humanity. Immersion in that mercy will secure salvation for the human soul. Choosing to follow Jesus and try to lead a worthy life is a choice to be made by everyone who could make choice, and the mercy of God and the will of God will cover the rest of the humanity in His time and in His way for those who can not make their choices.

Bringing the souls of all humanity to the mercy of God is a mandate given to us by our Lord Jesus Christ. He not only gave us the mandate, but also He promised that He would be with us always. Life of a Christian who has received the baptism and being a catholic is a call. Jesus said, "Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age." Mathew 28/12-13 Accordingly, bringing the souls to the mercy of God and letting them experience Him or immerse them in the ocean of His mercy is our call to fulfill through our lives as the instruments of peace.

How can we accomplish this call? Are we all called to travel all over the world? Some of us are called to travel, but the majority of us are called to bring the souls to God by our mere prayers, life witness, and through our very presence in our day today life. Prayer, presence, and lending hand to some one in the name of the Lord are great witnesses, which would move the mountains for the kingdom of God.

I believe, as the secular laity, we are called to lead the very life we are called for with the conscious of God's presence. While we acknowledge God's presence in the world, majority of the times, He does not require us to avoid the world, but to use the world and our influences in the world to bring God's kingdom. In this way, our mere presence in any community will become a light or salt to the community. With the God's consciousness, if we do not hide any of our areas of life, if we are willing to take Christ even to the areas we struggle, we will see the sin and sinful situations will vanish in His presence. If we take Him to our work place and extend His presence beyond the church and family through our good work, the works with God's consciousness, we become light and salt to the world. Wherever we do our best, God's Name is glorified and He takes care of our weaknesses too. I also believe, God can use any situation to save His souls. God only sees the intention and our heart. He does not look for a perfect work. Any effort we take can reach to the souls has potential to bring the souls to the divine mercy and to bring peace to the souls and to the world.

Why we have to evangelize? Is it not the salvation is a common blessing for all humanity? I belong to the generation of second Vatican, particularly my childhood days belong to Pope John Paul II time, who was a evangelize pope. Pope John Paul II' words, deeds, and his life reflected evangelization. All his movements had evangelization purpose and the result to it. He was the Pope who traveled with evangelization zeal, who captured the youth attention towards him. He was youthful, charismatic, articulating gospel, living the tradition, filled with evangelization spirit in his heart, thoughts, and actions. His speeches, writings, and his life reflect the life for resurrected Christ. The church is gifted with many stigmata saints, Pope John Paul II and His papacy legacy with the physical limitations he endured, is worthy of comparison with the stigmata suffering with Christ’s passion. If I say, he even used his sickness and disability to evangelize, that will not be an overstatement. He is an example our time to teach us how to bring souls to the divine mercy of God.

In our Lord's Prayer, our Lord directs us, to pray for His kingdom come. Kingdom includes kingship, which is the presence of God in our natural realm and the people who belong to the kingdom. The people who belong to the kingdom are the souls, by souls I mean all living people. The more people believe in the passion of Christ and immerse in the ocean of mercy the more people are saved. While salvation is a free gift, and a natural gift for all those who are baptized, the baptism need to be lived day today in our houses and work places to bring other souls to the mercy. There are multitudes of souls perish in ignorance and without knowing their God. The acts and efforts to bring other people to the mercy of God through our prayers and deeds will become a channel of their blessings. In return, we will be also blessed with peace in our lives.
This action is equal to the friends who carried the lame man to Jesus presence, when Jesus cure the lame man from the sins and healed him, then the lame man got out of his bed and walked. Our prayers will help the needy souls to reach near the mercy of God. Prayer of Intercession is a powerful way to evangelize.

Bringing sinners to the mercy of God is so important and vital for the salvation of God. Blessings come through many channels but the soul salvation always and only comes through the mercy of God. No one can merit or earn their salvation. So it is our responsibility of those who are baptized to pray for the mercy of God for those who do not know Him and for the sinners. Salvation is accomplished in Jesus Christ incarnation, death, and resurrection and it is freely available to all through His mercy for all humanity. We all are sinners, while we walk towards our salvation through our life; let us pray for a charitable heart to pray for other souls. Let us be an ambassador for Christ.

Is it possible to realize the mercy of God in our lives? Many holy men and women have lived reflecting mercy of God in their lives. St. Francis of Assisi, St. Padre Pio, St. Anthony, Avila Teresa, Catherine of Sienna, St. Clare,St. Francis Xavier,St. John De Brito, St. Dominic Savio, St. Don Bosco, St. Vincent De Paul,St. Damion, St. Maximillan, Mother Teresa of Calcutta,....................the list is endless. These holy people have reflected passion of Christ in their lives and they immersed their life in the mercy of God, so they are shining as stars in heaven. It is the conviction of the encounter of God's mercy by these souls, led them into the holy path through which they set examples for our life. They were also ordinary men and women like us, if they could attain that status, it will be worthy to attempt to immerse ourselves in the mercy of God in our lives. We did not bring any thing in to this world to loose, and we take nothing from this world to gain. In between, in this life, everything is from God's mercy. We are just travelers, and Jesus Christ, the Son of God Himself, died for us, when we think of that sacrifice, we will find solace in this life troubles and we will be able to forgive others. Let us pray and proclaim divine mercy in our lives.














Where there is darkness, light
and where there is sadness, joy


Among the saints, the shining star who lived his life as a prayer of peace to bring peace in an individual and to the world is St. Francis of Assisi. His ways of bringing peace to the world is similar to the Christ way of bringing peace. Accordingly, secular Franciscans are guided to bring light to alleviate darkness and to bring joy in the places of sadness. The reflection of light and joy to the world from oneself requires individual becoming the light and joy for the world, which he or she receives from the Holy Spirit.

Prayer and intercession for others can serve as a light in darkness. There are many examples in the gospel where people have served as the light to others in their times of darkness. The Canaanite mother who persistently begged for healing for her suffering daughter, in spite of Jesus posed as though not paying attention to her request. Finally, her perseverance and faith filled prayer won the healing for her daughter. Here the mother’s prayer became the light for her child. In the same way, Jesus heard a father’s prayer in healing his epileptic son. Thus, prayer and intercession for the family serves as a light in darkness.

Next, prayers for coworkers and for people who are in association with the work place can bring light to the darkness. A good example for this concept is the Roman Officer’s prayer for his servant. Jesus heard his prayer and healed the roman officer’s servant. This event explains clearly how we can bring light to the work place by means of our prayers and intercessions (Mathew, 8/5-13)

Praying and interceding for friends neighbors can bring light to the world. Once when Jesus was preaching in a crowded place, a group of friends brought a paralyzed man to Jesus. There was no place in the door, still they were not discouraged, but they were focused on carrying their friend to Jesus so that he can walk. Their faith was great and they had good heart to help the friend. In the times of needs, it is a blessing to have friends, who can pray with one heart and mind. In our lives, we will come across many paralyzed people in the soul who could not pray or experience God’s love. The charity of our prayers can carry them to the presence of God like those friends in the bible. Jesus saw their faith, effort, prayer, and love for their friend and he healed the paralyzed man. This miracle is a great example to explain the power of intercession prayers that can bring light to others those who are in darkness (Mathew 9/ 1-8; Mark 2/ 1- 12).





Annapoorna Mary, 2011
Prepared and presented in the Franciscan Retreat, November, 5th, 2011
Our Lady of Queen of Peace Retreat Center, Memphis Dioceses.