Peace be with you

In her Lenten devotional blog post, my dear friend reminded me of a simple and necessary effort. How sweet and simple it is that we share peace with those that we love. During mass, the congregation spreads peace to each other prior to receiving the Holy Eucharist. With a neighborly handshake, we greet our friends, families and nearby strangers warmly by expressing, “peace be with you.”

Mass is a time of prayerful meditation for me. During mass, I am most peaceful in mind and in my heart. Although I conjure up my troubles and temptations or joys and praises, my soul is uplifted knowing that His house is my peaceful sanctuary. I talk to God anytime and everyday but of course, it’s so different while kneeling in my pew.

I realize the necessity of peaceful acceptance with the hand I’ve been dealt. Peace can come in the form of accepting my current life situation. It can also come in the form of accepting a broken relationship. But I feel the most rewarding and daunting attempt could be peace in the form of forgiveness.

Sharing peace with others can be a silent effort in your heart when lifted up in prayer. Only God knows what’s truly in your heart when it comes to others. Only God will judge your true intentions and knowing this, I’m reminded of the power of prayer. I keep telling myself that prayer doesn’t change God’s perfect plan. Prayer changes me.

I’ve recently come face to face with former friends. As a result of past mistakes made between myself and another guilty party, certain people have publicly and privately turned their backs on our friendship in one way or another. It was bound to happen that these former friends and I would one day meet again. To my surprise, our anticipated reunion was completely peaceful. I didn’t get the silent treatment and thankfully it wasn’t too awkward. I somehow found it in me to genuinely smile and lovingly embrace a particular individual despite the reality we now face of no longer being “friends.”

Although I was the one who initiated communication after so many months of creative avoidance, I believe the peace I found in my heart to approach her was God working His way in and through me. God’s perfect plan was to let each of us go our separate ways despite that pride was the overriding reason. But my prayers to Him helped me change who I once was towards her. The encounter could have been dramatic and unproductive if we let prideful unrest get the best of it. But again, I dug deep within my soul to offer peace despite the past. For me, this peace was beautiful and transcendent. In this peace, I found acceptance of our current friendship status (or lack thereof). In this acceptance I found closure and contentment.
At this point I would have it no other way, and I praise God for how it all turned out in the end.

As I sit and think about friends who have come and gone and those who have withstood the test of time, to each of them I bring peace. As I would do in church, I offer each of them peace in the silent form of prayer, acceptance and forgiveness for whatever will be will be.

“Peace I give to you, my friends…my friends
And I will love you ‘til the end.”