St. Bartholomew Church

Are you at peace?  That’s kind of a heavy question for the middle of the summer, but it’s a good one - are you at peace?

I don’t know about you, but so much in life works against that for me - or rather I allow so much in my life to work against that.  All the ups and downs that can so easily cause me to lose my center.  

There’s a spiritual line of thought that reminds us that everything in this life in temporary - the good times, the bad; feeling happy, feeling sad….everything will eventually come to an end.  And our loss of peace, our suffering, comes when we try to hold on to the temporary and make it permanent.  So we find ourselves lost or disappointed or worked up, when what we cling to so desperately comes to an end.  And our peace is lost. 

That happens when our search for peace is misplaced.  Did you hear the verse for the Gospel acclamation today?  Let the peace of Christ control your hearts.  And there we have it. 

Whenever we find ourselves losing our peace - it’s because we have tried to find it in what was transitory, not in the eternal Peace, Jesus Christ. 

Saint Augustine said, ‘you made us for yourself Oh Lord and our hearts are restless until they rest in thee.’  How right he is.  So, when we lose our center, when we find that we are losing ourselves, let’s pray for the grace to allow the Peace of Jesus to be what controls our hearts, for it is the only thing that will ever truly heal our restlessness.  God help us all. +