December 5 -- PEACE

We leave together in peace. As an act of
prayer and an act of remembrance
 patients, staff, volunteers and
 Sisters place their poppies on our
wreaths, at the Chapel of Our Lady
and St. John at St. John's Rehab

Decades have passed since a younger, late John Lennon of Beatles fame penned the lines “Give peace a Chance” in a New York City hotel room. These were somewhat violent times as college students and the American public marched against the US backed war in Vietnam of the 1970’s.

Another young person adopted her own heroic version of peace, rallying her fellow Pakistani school students against Taliban insurgence to quietly insist, day by day, that their cause of education for young women and children was of vital importance to their future. This all caught the attention of global media, especially when Malal Yousafzai was shot and wounded; she was subsequently co-awarded the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize, later addressing our own House of Commons in Ottawa. She continues her university studies and work in Birmingham, UK.

We must all give peace a chance when we love, forgive, pray, wear a poppy in November for Remembrance Day for our long dead and present-day peace keeping troops.

A constant reminder in our benediction exhorts us to always, “Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.”

– Janice Barnes