Today's Word
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God."
Matthew 5:9
Today's Reflection
Elizabeth of Portugal was a queen.
She was also, more than once, the only thing standing between her kingdom and war.
Her husband, King Denis, was difficult.
Her son Afonso rebelled against his father and the country came to the edge of civil war.
Elizabeth rode out on horseback between the two armies. She refused to leave until they talked.
The war did not happen.
She did this more than once.
Not because she was naive about human nature, but because she took seriously the idea that her faith had to mean something in the actual world she lived in.
When her husband died, she did not retire into grief.
She gave away most of her wealth, moved to a small house near a convent she had founded, and spent her remaining years serving the poor.
There is a kind of faith that is purely private, a faith that stays inside us and never quite reaches the world outside.
Elizabeth was not interested in that kind of faith.
She had influence and she used it. She had resources and she distributed them. She had presence and she put herself in the way of conflict.
What influence do you have?
What could you put in the way of something difficult today?
Today's Prayer
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Not in grand gestures I will never make,
but in the small moments of today:
the conversation I could soften,
the word I could hold back,
the kindness I could offer
when I would rather not.
Amen.
Today's Call
Is there a conflict in your life, however small, where you could play a peacemaking role today?
A family tension, a friendship under strain, a colleague you have been avoiding.
Take one small step toward it.