Pray for Peace (10/07/2025)

Today we remember with sorrow the horrific events that took place over the tiny nation of Israel on October 7, 2023. In the course of hours, over 1200 innocent children, women and men were brutally and cruelly slain and more than 250 hostages were taken back into Gaza. Thus, the war that has ravaged that tract of humanity began.

Yesterday, representatives for Israel and Hamas met along with diplomatic representative from around the globe. The hope is that Hamas will accept Trumps 20-point peace plan. We can’t be in the meeting, but I believe we are called to play a part. We can pray with all our might and all our heart for true peace to be hammered out for this region of our world. We can pray that the fighting stops and that neighbors can set down their weapons and begin the long road to building a lasting peace.

We recently celebrated the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi who is credited with composing the Peace Prayer. It speaks powerfully of us as instruments of the LORD’s peace, encountering the very ingredients of war with the antidote. Today might be a good day to pray it with all our heart.

"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 despair, hope; 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. Amen."

Today is also the Feast of our Lady of the Rosary on which we honor the Blessed Mother for her role in the 16^th century naval battle over the Turks. Tradition says that the Christian world prayed the rosary for victory and victory was granted. Perhaps today would be a good day to pray the rosary to the Blessed Mother for an end to war between Hamas and Israel.

It is true that we live far away from the shells and the rubble of war. It is true that most of don’t know individuals involved in the conflict personally. But it is also true that we are all created by one LORD and we are sisters and brothers regardless of our place of birth, language, or religion. For that reason alone, we should see this day and the potential it holds as a call to lift our minds, our hearts, and our voices in prayer for peace, for an end to fighting, for harmony among nations.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.