Contemplative Haven

Prayer to Our Lady of Fatima for Peace
“O Mary, Mother of God and Queen of Peace, you appeared to the children of Fatima at a time of great unrest and turmoil in the world. You asked then that the world pray for peace, so that the Reign of God may be known in every land.

Our world today continues to be mired in the vicious and fruitless cycle of hatred, violence and war. Your message of peace to the children of Fatima is needed as urgently today as it was when you first delivered it.

Grant us, Mary, that peace which is so much more than the mere absence of war. Grant us God’s peace, so that we might see every man and woman as a brother or a sister, as fellow creatures of the one God. Help us to build a world of justice, which is the only sure foundation of peace. And bring us all one day into the fullness of union with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in eternity. This we ask through Christ, your Son and our Lord, the Prince of Peace. Amen.”

Taken from:  Our Lady of Fatima, with Prayers and Devotions (from the Florentine Series of booklets on the Lives of the Saints)

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“…the best reason for loving peace is not that war is horrible.  A nation that loves peace because war is degrading, disgusting, unpleasant, brutalizing, filthy, etc. will get in plenty of trouble.  No matter how horrible anything is there has to be a better reason, than its horribleness, for our hating it.”

[Sept. 5, 1941. “Run to the Mountain. The Journals of Thomas Merton. Volume I, 1939-1941]

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Dedicated to our Canadian troops in Afghanistan, and those who are serving elsewhere in the world.  May the Lord protect you:

Direct to YouTube for this video is here.

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An excerpt from Caryll Houselander’s, “Lift Up Your Hearts”:

“The condition of peace is courage, but the moments in which we most long for it are those when courage seems most difficult.  When all that we want is to loosen our hold, to throw off responsibility, to rest.  We want not a sword, but a lap big enough to bury our head on.  It is comfort then to realise that the courage peace demands is in fact to relax, to throw all our care into the lap of God.  It means that we must take the risk of trusting God’s love, believing Christ’s word, loving one another…

So it is that peace on earth can be restored through the hearts of the unknown, humble people in all the countries of the world who open their hearts to the Lamb of God that in them the whole world’s peace may begin.

Advent is closing and the longing of the church for light and for the spring, the budding forth of the saviour, is culminating in the mystery of Christmas, and we can put aside our cares to make the house of our soul ready for the child, with prayer as simple as a folk song, rocking the cradle of peace to the beating of the human heart.”

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[Artwork is “A Little Girl Rocking a Cradle”, by Nicolaes Maes, circa 1655]

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