Blessed are the peacemakers...
(c)Mary TV 2013.
J.M.J.
July 5, 2013
St. Zaccaria
Dear Family of Mary!
"Dear children! With joy in the heart I love you all and call you to draw closer to my Immaculate Heart so I can draw you still closer to my Son Jesus, and that He can give you His peace and love, which are nourishment for each one of you. Open yourselves, little children, to prayer - open yourselves to my love. I am your mother and cannot leave you alone in wandering and sin. You are called, little children, to be my children, my beloved children, so I can present you all to my Son. Thank you for having responded to my call." (June 25, 2013)
Our Lady tells us that
Jesus' peace and love are the nourishment we each need. His peace will
give us the strength and energy for our lives. I have been wondering
about this, ever since I heard this message, until I read a passage from
a sermon by St. Peter Chrysologus in the Liturgy of the Hours for the
feast day of Elizabeth of Portugal, July 4. This sermon is incredible,
and I will quote some of it here. Be fed!!
"Blessed
are the peacemakers," the evangelist said, dearest brethren, for they
shall be called sons of God. Truly Christian virtues grow in a man who
enjoys the unchangeable possession of Christian peace, nor does one come
to the title of son of God except through that of peacemaker.
Peace,
dearest brethren, rescues man from servitude, provide him with the name
of a free man, changes his identity before God together with his
condition, from a servant to a son, and from a slave to a free man.
Peace among brethren is the will of God, the joy of Christ, the
completion of holiness, the rule of justice, the teacher of truth, the
guardian of morals and a praiseworthy discipline in every regard. Peace
lends strength to our prayers; it is the way our petitions can reach God
easily and be credited; it is the plenitude which fulfills our desires.
Peace is the mother of love, the bond of concord and the manifest sign
of a pure soul, one which seeks to please God, which seeks to be
fulfilled and has its desire rewarded. Peace must be preserved according
to the Lord's precepts, as Christ said: "I leave you peace, my peace I
give you," that is as I left you in peace, in peace shall I find you. As
Christ left the world, he wished to leave the gift he wanted to find
when he returned.
We
have a commandment from heaven to retain his gift; his one word is: 'I
shall find what I left." God's is the planting of peace in the root, but
the uprooting is from the enemy; for, just as brotherly love comes from
God, so hatred comes from the devil; therefore, we must condemn our
hatred of men, for it is written: "He who hates his brother is a
murderer."
Now
you see, dearest brethren, why we should love peace and cultivate
harmony: because they beget and nurture love. But you know also from the
apostle John that, "Love comes from God,' and that whoever is not with
God does not possess love.
Let
us therefore, my brethren, keep the commandments, which are life for us;
let us carry on together the obligations of our brotherhood in profound
peace; let us bind one another with the ties of salvific charity in
this mutual love which "covers a multitude of sins." Love ought to be
embraced with the grasp of all our desires, since the goods it provides
amount to as many rewards. We must keep peace before all other virtues,
since God is always in peace.
Love
peace, and all the world will be tranquil and quiet. By doing so you
store up rewards for me, and joy for yourselves, that the Church of God
may be founded on the bond of peace and may cling to perfect observance
in Christ. (From a sermon attributed to Peter Chrysologus, bishop)
In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
©Mary TV 2013
"Medjugorje is the spiritual center of the world!"
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