PEACE ON EARTH
Last September, the Congress of Abbots took place at Sant Anselmo in Rome, which included not only 215 abbots and priors from the international Benedictine congregation, but also 23 sisters and many others. After the Congress, our new Primate, Abbot Jeremias Schroder, issued a newsletter about the Congress and a message from the Congress to all Benedictines. Both of these are available on this website.
In the newsletter, he highlights that members of the Congress were very much aware that they were meeting in a time of great conflict internationally, not least in the Holy Land and in the Ukraine. It comes as no surprise, then, that the accompanying message is one of Peace, urging all monastics to seek to live in peace within their communities and to ‘radiate’ that peace to others outside, especially to those who visit.
He writes, ‘We hope that this humble message of peace is received as an invitation to all our monastic brothers and sisters to become actively involved in peace-building. Let us be creative and find ways to build peace in our communities and in our world. And let us share across our Confederation how we do it: we want to be a truly peace-building worldwide family.’
It is a timely message as we begin a New Year, the church’s Jubilee Year of Hope. Our hope is always for peace, peace in the world. Our hope is also for the peace that political solutions cannot give, the peace that passes understanding, which only Jesus can bestow.
Surely, Abbot Jeremias’ message also applies to us oblates as well as the monastics it is addressed to. I have therefore been asking myself what the message might mean for us oblates.
At the heading of the message is a quote from the Prologue to the Rule: ‘Search Peace and pursue it’. In my translation of the Rule this reads ‘Seek peace and follow after it’: this is our imperative, our calling. It means seeking Christ and following after Him who is our peace in the circumstances of our own life, our own unique vocation, unique because we are called individually by Him. It means being at peace with Christ and at peace with others which will lead us to be at peace with ourselves.
This peace is counter-cultural as expressed in Psalm 119 (120): ‘I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for fighting.’ In the midst of the tumult in our world, the conflicting discourse and warring soundbites in the media and perhaps the turmoil in our own hearts we must have the courage to be still, to be silent and to seek peace by listening with attentiveness to the voice of the Lord in our hearts and by gently praying the Hours. In this we are emulating our Holy Father Benedict and his first followers who sought the peace of Christ in these ways in the midst of the war torn Italy of their own time.
Abbot Jeremias encourages us to ‘radiate’ the peace we find to others. We too can provide a welcome to others in our own homes, to help others find peace and reconciliation by being a listening presence to others, not only in our homes but in our workplaces and churches too for listening is a kind of healing.
He also mentions the possibility of a ‘Benedictine Prayer for Peace around the Globe’. He suggests that each community becomes part of this ‘Benedictine Prayer Chain’, for example, through weekly intercessions or moments of silent prayer at an indicated time on a certain day. This may be something we can establish with our sister and brother oblates in our own community.
Like St Francis, we must pray ‘Make me an instrument of your peace’ and pray that our own oblation will be an instrument of peace. Indeed our offering of ourselves is a prayer for peace in itself.
Neil ZOLADKIEWICZ
Oblate of Ealing Abbey
Chairperson of the UK Oblates Team
