Sabbath Reflections

Peace, not only the peace between nations or quarreling parties but also the sense of peace that seeks a permanent home in our hearts and soul, is a conscious decision, a mindful, deliberate act.  Peace is recognition of our mutual imperfections. Peace is our awareness and appreciation of each other and our shared need for human contact.  Peace is not a a complicated concept reserved for theologians, scholars, philosophers and politicians to understand or achiever for us, but something we are called to as humans.
from: My Hope for Peace
by: Jehan Sadat

 Where can I turn for peace?
Where is my solace
When other sources cease to make me whole?
When with a wounded heart, anger, or malice,
I draw myself apart,
Searching my soul?

 Where, when my aching grows,
Where, when I languish,
Where, in my need to know, where can I run?
Where is the quiet hand to calm my anguish?
Who, who can understand?
He, only One.

He answers privately,
Reaches my reaching
In my Gethsemane, Savior and Friend.
Gentle the peace he finds for my beseeching.
Constant he is and kind,
Love without end.

Text: Emma Lou Thayne, b. 1924.