Messenger
My work is loving the world.
Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird—
equal seekers of sweetness.
Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.
Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.
Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?
Am I no longer young, and still half-perfect? Let me
keep my mind on what matters,
which is my work,
which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished.
The phoebe, the delphinium.
The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture.
Which is mostly rejoicing, since all the ingredients are here,
which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart
and these body-clothes,
a mouth with which to give shouts of joy
to the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,
telling them all, over and over, how it is
that we live forever.
— from Thirst: Poems by Mary Oliver (Beacon Press, 2006)
Prayer of Blessing
Peace where there is war.
Healing where there is hurt.
Memory where we have forgotten the other.
Vision where there is violence.
Light where there is madness.
Sight where we have blinded each other.
Comfort where there is sorrow.
Tears where there is hardness.
Laughter where we have missed life’s joy.
Laughter when remembering the joy.
— John Philip Newell
Gracious God, Help us see your face in the faces of the people around us. Give us courage to love one another even when love seems like a risk. Give us compassion for those who are unlike us. Teach us to listen to those we disagree with, to hear stories that make us uncomfortable. Heal the hatred in the world around us by healing our own hearts first. Give us peace. Amen.
— Gregory Coles, Adapted from A Prayer for Peace in Our Country and World, Crosswalk.com
Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.
— Rumi
Love has no other desire but to fulfil itself.
But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love’s ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.
— Kahlil Gibran, Excerpt from “On Love,” The Prophet (Knopf, 1923)
Special thanks to Sister Carmel Little, CSJP, for her preparation of the Weekly Peace Prayer, which can be found on the CSJP website under the Spirituality tab.
This article appeared in the Autumn 2026 issue of Living Peace.