The Path of Peace

photo courtesy of J Mackey

An Old Hasidic Tale...

The rabbi asked his students,"How can we determine the hour of dawn, when the night ends and the day begins?"

One of the rabbi's students suggested: "When from a distance you can distinguish between a dog and a sheep?"

"No," was the answer of the rabbi.

"Is it when one can distinguish between a fig tree and a grapevine?" asked a second student.

"No," the rabbi said.

"Please tell us the answer, then," said the students.

"It is, then," said the wise teacher, "when you can look into the face of another human being and you have enough light in you to recognize your brother or your sister. Until then it is night, and the darkness is still with us."


Let us pray for the light. It is the peace the world cannot give.

~ Henri Nowen, "The Path of Peace"

O Thou who comest

O Thou who comest,
Who are the hope of the world, give us hope. Give us hope that beyond the worst the world can do there is such a best that not even the world can take it from us, hope that none whom thou hast loved is ever finally lost, not even to death.

O Thou who died,
In loneliness and pain, suffer to die in us all that keeps us from thee and from each other and from what we have it in us at our best and bravest to become. O Lamb of God, forgive thy butchers.

O Thou who didst rise again,
Thou Holy Spirt of Christ, arise and live within us now, that we may be thy body, that we may be thy feet to walk into the world's pain, thy hands to heal, thy heart to break, if need must be, for love of the world.

Thou risen Christ, make Christs of us all.

Amen.

~ Buechner