Breaking Open and Sharing the Peace

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Each Monday through Thursday, I am writing a daily reflection and sharing throughout the diocese. In the depths of my soul, I sense that prayer indeed infuses every part of our being and moves throughout time and creation, as it is like a mist that gently covers our face and refreshes our lives. As Bishop, I genuinely believe that a “shepherd should smell like the sheep.” I want to hear your voices, see your faces, and hold what is on your heart. I also believe that your fellow pilgrims need the same connection.

Our journey together will take on a different form on Friday and Saturday.  I invite the faithful to share the goodness and love in your own hearts so that we may uplift and enliven one another. Each moment and each day, you are vessels of God’s love. As followers of Jesus Christ, we are each called to proclaim the Good News of our Savior. 

Thus, each Friday and Saturday will be a time of breaking open and sharing the peace.  Since at this time, we cannot share the peace physically, let us share the peace in this form. 

Each Friday, I will share a prayer, scripture, or quote to use over the weekend. If you are so moved, I invite you to share a prayer that has special meaning in your life. It could be one that sustained you in a crisis or a prayer that brings you a sense of peace.  Let us assemble and share a vast collection of prayers, scriptural passages, and quotes so that the world can pray together. If you are comfortable, please explain its importance. I will also invite you to be revolutionary and daring: send it to a friend with a personal note, post it on your social media site, or call someone and read it to them. Perhaps, you can say the prayer in your home or ask friends or family members to take turns reading that prayer. Let’s be evangelists during this time and share the peace and love of Christ.  

If you know someone who is in a nursing home, an assisted living community, or lives alone and needs prayer, please send me their name and number, and I will personally call them and share my prayer with them. Nothing is more important than the love we share with our sisters and brothers on this journey. 

Each Saturday, our breaking open and sharing the peace will take a slightly different form. We will use our senses as a form of prayer. I may post a picture (nature, family, pet), work of art, song, piece of poetry, or a recipe that holds special meaning and share how it connects my life with my spiritual journey with Jesus Christ. I sense that many have all these fears and anxieties in our heads, and they are consuming our every thought. I invite this form of sharing and breaking the peace as a way for us to live in our hearts. For it is there, we will find the peace of the Lord.  Let’s be creative and start planting the seeds of the flowers that will soon bloom in our lives, churches, and our faith. 

Although we are physically distant, there is no reason we should be disconnected. Now is a time for goodness, empathy, humanity, and love to cover the earth. In this time of surrender, take a chance and break open parts of your life. Let us learn something about one another, let us connect heart to heart, song to song, prayer to prayer.  

I can promise that when we break our lives open and share “the peace,” it creates holy ground, and that holy ground will transcend any distance that may separate us. My sisters and brothers, “the peace of the Lord be with you always!”

On this Friday, I would like to share a prayer that I read every morning as soon as I awake. It grounds me and reminds me of how God is my foundation, my light, and my hope:


O God, I come into quietness and stillness of your presence I take with me a quiet serenity which will last through the rough and smooth of this day. I come to find wisdom, so I may not make foolish mistakes. To know when to speak and keep silent, when to act and when to refrain.  To find peace, so nothing may worry or upset me. To find courage, be patient and not give up hope, when hopes are long in coming true. To accept disappointment without bitterness and to accept delay without complaint. I come to find love, to listen to your love so I may love without being attached, so nothing may make me bitter or unforgiving.  I come to begin this day with you and able to continue and end it with you.  

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