Tuesday 4 November 2014

Words in the Hands of Love : 2014 Dona Nobis Pacem (Grant us Peace)

“We have to add love to our words or none of it means a thing,” says Mimi Lenox, founder of the popular BlogBlast4Peace movement.  “We have to add love to our walk or we all stumble in darkness. Do you know how to create peace in your everyday world?”
For last year’s peace blogging, I wrote about how we need to look inwards for peace;  how peace cannot come from outside oneself.   

If we want to add love to our walk, we must find inner peace, and lasting inner peace can only come from a place of soul-deep integrity.

Living in soul integrity is when you can look at, or think of, those people who’ve hurt you deeply and, in those secret chambers of your heart, truly wish them well. 

Standing in your soul’s integrity isn’t an act of peace that pays lip-service to the current buzzword “forgiveness.”  This kind of peace is not a peace where your lips say you’re at peace, while your mind still stumbles in the darkness of remembered pain and hurt, holding onto vengeful fantasies of your enemies kneeling before you filled with a sorrow so painful it soothes your wounds, the very wounds they inflicted on you.
No, lasting forgiveness, lasting peace, is an attitude so much part of your everyday world you don’t even realise you’ve shifted from anger and negativity into the zone of inner peace.

There, where all is calm and still, when you think of those who hurt you, you feel neither an intense longing for their love and acceptance, nor a burning anger because they haven’t shown remorse for their hurtful actions. 

At that point of calm and inner stillness, you’ve reached the end of your journey to inner peace.  What, then, is left?
The journey towards peace in your everyday  world, of course. That journey has just begun and, once you’ve found your own inner peace, you then become a spiritual warrior: an ordinary person who does not merely hope to be a part of the world’s peace process, but one who actually has the courage to create peace in the situations that arise in your circle of family, friends and acquaintances.

One simple way to start transferring the peace within you out into your world is by remembering the power of words. Forget about teaching your kids that, while sticks and stones may break their bones, words can never harm them!
Words can be the mightiest, and cruellest, sword of all. Used without thought or compassion, the sword of the tongue can cut very deeply indeed. Careless, callous words have the power to tear down a person’s soul and crush their spirit. But words in the hands of love can lift people up; they can build strong, good spirits that go out into the world and create a loving, peaceful environment.

In today’s technological environment, your words can ripple across the waters of our globe, spreading love or hatred, war or peace. When next you use words –to gossip with your family about another family member not there to tell their side of the story, to order your food in a busy restaurant, or to dash off an angry email – remember it’s not only what you say, but how you say it, that reveals your soul’s integrity.

You can speak strong words, words reflecting the truth of your soul. Just speak them with an empathy and an understanding that those you address are fighting their own battles. Your words have the power to bring the light of peace to a moment in time. Or they can widen the abyss that separates us all from that which we most yearn for: peace in our hearts and peace in our everyday world.

The next time someone hurts you, can you make a difference by adding peace to the words you use? Try it ... And discover for yourself the power of words in the hands of love.

Dona Nobis Pacem  - Grant us Peace
Nkosi, yizwa imithandazo yethu
Nkosi, sikelela, thina lusapho lwayo
(isiZulu, from the South African national anthem, 
 “Lord, hear our prayers / Lord, bless us, your children.”)