In Honor: September 11, 2001 - September 11, 2006

Dear Friends,

I write this in honor of Gary Lasko who died that world changing day.  My family has known his parents since I was a little girl and I ache for his parents, his wife and daughter, and all those families who lost someone that day.  I ache for the people who were directly affected and those who the impact of such magnitude may be lost in our collective conscious.  I weep for those who feel killing is the agenda of anything Divine and shout that the words of Thich Nhat Hahn in a whisper of mindfulness, "There is no way to peace.  Peace is the way."

Below are poems of peace from around the world.  We can often feel like we are the only ones who know or want peace or have an idea of what it could look like.  I say this is not true that as one world, One Being, One Breathing Consciousness of this Planet, we all search for peace, some how, some way.

I hope this offers encouragement, solace, hope, gratitude.....
Love, Jen

Peace by Gerald Manley Hopkins

When will you ever, Peace, wild wooddove, shy wings shut,

Your round me roaming end, and under my bough?

When, when, Peace, will you, Peace? I'll not play hypocrite

To own my heart: I yield you do come sometimes; but

That piecemeal peace is poor peace. What pure peace allows

Alarms of wars, the daunting wars, the death of it?

O surely, reaving Peace, my Lord, should leave in lieu

Some good! And so he does leave Patience exquisite,

That plumes of Peace thereafter, And when Peace here does house

He comes with work to do, he does not come to coo,

He comes to brood and sit.

Druid Prayer

Deep within the still centre of my being may I find peace.

Silently within the quiet of the Grove may we share peace.

Gently within the greater circle of humankind may we radiate peace.

Christine Worthington

A Jewish Child's Prayer

Lord, may I sleep in peace and wake up to a good life. Cover me with the shelter of Your peace and protect me because You are good.

Alice Bailey

 

Lead us from darkness to Light.

Lead us from the unreal to the Real.

Lead us from death to Immortality.

Lead us from chaos to Beauty.

Traditional Gaelic

Peace up to heaven.

Heaven down to earth,

Earth under heave,

Strength in every one.

St Matthew, 5:9

Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.

Helen Suso

In peace is My dwelling place.

Artharva Veda, xix

Peace to be earth and to airy space!

Peace be to heaven, peace to the waters,

Peace to the plant and peace to the trees!

May all the powers grant to me peace!

By this invocation of peace may peace be diffused!

By this invocation of peace may peace bring peace!

With this peace the dreadful I now appease,

With this peace the cruel I cruel I now appease,

With this peace all evil I now appease,

So that peace may prevail, happiness prevail!

May everything for us be peaceful!


Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi

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 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,

If it pardoning that we are pardoned,

And it in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Mahatma Gandhi

If we are to attain real peace in this world, we will have to begin with the children.

Anonymous

 

I embrace the war within myself and I embrace all conflict within the human family. I breath peace and I breathe healing: in myself and in all others.

Caitlin Matthews

 

Let us not demonize our enemies, but rather pray that the divine spirit wakes from sleep within them. Let resourceful compassion rule out every action that the circle of protection be maintained.

 

John Matthews

 

The dream of peace is not enough. It can only be realized through the active operation of the heart.

Dhammapada

 

Better than a thousand useless words is one

single word that gives peace.

 

Swami Ramdas

 

Peace is in the heart in which no

wave of desire of any kind rises.

 

 

Meister Eckhart

There is nowhere perfect rest save

In the heart detached.

 

Muhammad

 

Shall I not inform you of a better act

than fasting, alms, and prayers?

Making peace between one another:

enmity and malice tear up heavenly

rewards by the roots.

Rabbi Bunam taught: "Our sages say:

‘Seek peace in your own place.'

You cannot find peace anywhere

save in your own self.

In the psalm we read,

‘There is no peace in bones because of my sin.
' When a man has made peace with himself,

he will be able to make peace

in the whole world."

 

Prayer of the Great Goddess

 

May the Great Goddess watch over all peoples and bring them to the flowering of their fulfillment. May She nourish and protect them, who are all, unknowing, Her Children.

May She bring to them the knowledge of their fellowship within Her hall, in which all races live, of their companionship at Her table, from which all nations eat.

May all the men and women of Earth take up the stewardship of their inheritance. May joy and fulfillment come to those who care for this bright globe; may understanding come to those who labour unaware.

Let the grace of the Goddess be born within us all, the children of Earth and Heaven. Let the knowledge of Her fellowship guide our actions and our lives.

Prudence Jones


Loving Kindness

May every creature abound in well-being and peace.

May every living being, weak or strong, the long and the small

The short and the medium-sized, the mean and the great

May every living being, seen or unseen, those dwelling far off,

Those near by, those already born, those waiting to be born

May all attain inward peace.

Let no one deceived another

Let no one despise another in any situation.

Let no one, from antipathy or hatred, wish evil to anyone at all.

Just as a mother, with her own life, protects her only son from hurt,

So within yourself foster a limitless concern for every living creature.

Display a heart of boundless love for all the world.

In all its heights and depth and broad extent

Love unstrained, without hate or enmity.

Then as you stand or walk, sit or lie, until overcome by drowsiness

Devote your mind entirely to this, it is known as living here

Life divine.

Buddhist Prayer