2nd Sunday of Lent - Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.
We are I think, all of us overwhelmed by the atrocities being perpetrated in the Ukraine. We feel helpless in the face of so much meaningless suffering. But we Christians are not powerless before it. As an old hymn puts it “We stand for God and for His Glory. The Lord supreme and God of all; Against his foes we raise his standard; Around the Cross we hear his call.” We are part of a mighty army and our weapon is prayer.
This year we celebrate 300 years since our foundation. Mother Catherine Plunkett our Foundress and our founding Sisters lived their vocation in the middle of a situation not unlike that in the Ukraine today. Discovery that they were Catholic nuns would have meant certain death. They lived in the midst of tyranny, bloodshed and death on a daily basis and they gave their lives for reconciliation and peace. This is the rock from which we were hewn. This is our legacy. Let us celebrate our 300th anniversary by being more fully who we are called to be – lights in the darkness.
St. James in his letter already quoted goes on to say that faith without works is dead. What are the works that proclaim our faith, give substance to it, make it to be effective? I think the answer to that is and always will be CHARITY

In the Sermon on the Mount we receive a blue print, a master plan, that we should be pouring over during these times. It is our strategy for winning the war of grace over sin and death, light over darkness. Let us take to heart St. James words to heart for they are as true for each of us as they are for those fighting in the Ukraine. Where does any discord among us begin- in MY own heart. I have power to help put an end to war by my choices. These are the ‘works’ that need to accompany my prayer and my faith. The defeat of evil will not happen because of my emotional response as I sit before the TV, my tears at the plight of those sufferings. It will come about by my choice of virtue over vice in my daily life, my choice of selflessness over selfishness, the triumph of god’s grace over sin in my life.
When I was a novice I read a very powerful statement by Rene Voillume, which has become the bedrock to my understanding of my apostolate as a Dominican nun. This is not a direct quote but as I remember it he said ‘ our personal encounter and response to God, is also the greatest good for each individual on earth, at whatever stage of development he may be.’
We are, I think, challenged by the war in the Ukraine to live out of the truth of that statement. The life and death of each one of us has its influence for good or ill on all the others. My real level of my concern for the people in the Ukraine will be seen in my next choice and the one after that. Am I by my way of living going to contribute to the war or be part of its resolution?
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