What Is Peace?

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Benedictine peace, courage of hope, faith, Peace, right-heartedness, serenity, Sr. Joan Chittister, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Although we are not engaged in an “all out war” in our country right now, we are experiencing what Joe Wise, one of the early musicians of the “guitar Mass” era, called our “private little wars.” In truth, we are in a very dangerous moment of civil unrest and seem unable to restore a sense of peace any time soon. With this in mind this morning, I turned to Joan Chittister for a word of hope or guidance. I was not disappointed. Sister Joan reminded me of what some call “the long view” – the truth that cycles of life are longer than my personal story and it is up to me and all of us to move toward change for the better each day. Here is what she said about Benedictine peace. Every sentence deserves reflection.

Benedictine peace is not something that is ever achieved. It is something sincerely and consistently sought. It comes, in fact, from the seeking, not from the getting. It comes from the inside, not the outside. It comes from right-heartedness, not from self-centeredness. It comes from the way we look at life, not from the way we control it. It comes from the attitudes we bring to things, not from the power we bring to them…Monastic peace, in other words, is the power to face what is with the serenity of faith and the courage of hope, with the surety that good can come from evil and the certainty that good will triumph. Peace is the fruit of Benedictine spirituality. Peace is the sign of the disarmed heart. (Wisdom Distilled from the Daily, p. 184)

From the Inside Out

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monastic peace, Peace, right-heartedness, Sr. Joan Chittister, the Benedictine Way, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Wisdom Distilled from the Daily

Sister Joan Chittister is one of the most prolific spiritual writers on the planet in our time. My assessment of her “success” is simple. She writes what she has learned from living a life dedicated to what is known as “The Benedictine Way.” All religious congregations have rules on which they base their life and their members do their best, more or less, to grow in their attention and commitment to what is called for in their daily life in order to follow the vision of their founder. Benedictine women and men have done so for fifteen hundred years. Recently many others have joined their effort in what has been called “monasteries without walls” because they are seeking deeper spiritual lives lived with an essential component called balance. That, they find, brings peace, a state that is sorely lacking in our world today. I speak of Christian groups here but as we know the same is true in other religious traditions everywhere.

As I reflect on this moment in time, when we are living in a moment of universal upheaval, I find Sister Joan’s book, Wisdom Distilled from the Daily, a valuable tool for my reflection. Here are the words that give me pause for today from her chapter called Peace: Sign of a Disarmed Heart.

Benedictine peace is not something that is ever achieved. It is something sincerely and consistently sought. It comes, in fact, from the seeking, not from the getting. It comes from the inside, not from the outside. It comes from right-heartedness, not from self-centeredness. It comes from the way we look at life, not from the way we control it. It comes from the attitudes we bring to things, not from the power we bring to them…Monastic peace, in other words, is the power to face what is with the serenity of faith and the courage of hope, with the surety that good can come from evil and the certainty that good will triumph. Peace is the fruit of Benedictine spirituality. Peace is the sign of the disarmed heart. (p. 184-85)