As 2011 quickly draws to a close, I would like to leave you with this quote from today’s Office of Readings. Pope St. Leo the Great is the author, and I am translating from the Italian text I read.
… what can we find more suitable, among all the gifts of God, than peace, that peace announced for the first time by the song of the angels at the birth of the Lord? Peace begets children of God, nurtures love, creates union; it is the repose of the blessed ones, the dwelling of eternity. Its proper work and its particular benefit is to unite to God all those leave the world of evil.
Those therefore who, not by blood nor by the will of the flesh, nor by the will of man, but by God are born, offer to the Father their filial hearts united in peace…. The birth of the Lord is the birth of peace, as the Apostle says: “He is our peace, he who made of two people, one alone.” (Eph. 2: 14)
I wish you all the peace of our Lord Jesus throughout the new year, about to dawn upon us.
