World Day of Peace

Why I set my alarm for 7:00 am on New Year's day is still making me wonder!!! Well, that is two hours later than my usual rising, so I must have thought I was going to have a long sleep when I was setting my clock yesterday (last year).

Providentially, the 7:00 news started with the voice of Benedict XVI, who wished a happy new year and peace to everyone (in English). He said that peace begins with a "sacred respect for every person and the firm repudiation of war and violence".

Well, on that note I rose to say Happy New Year to 2007.

At the 9:00 am community mass I was the principal celebrant. We used Christmas carols and psalms to begin the communal worship and prayer. I was struck by how the prescribed readings are truly about Peace on this first day of the year. I mean, these reading have been set since 1970, but it was the first time that they ever struck me so clearly. And so after mass I tried to find the pope's discourse for this morning. I found excerpts online, and will check the Vatican website later in the week when the full text will be posted. For now I note that Benedict XVI spoke about peace in this way today:

Today, there is a lot of talk about human rights but often it is forgotten that these need a stable foundation, not a relative one, not one subject to opinion. And this cannot be anything but the dignity of the person. Respect for this dignity starts with the recognition and the protection of the right to live and to freely profess one's own religion.

[Photo of Peace pole at the house of our neighbor,
the Pacific School of Religion
at the
Graduate Theological Union]