Finding Peace

Make me a channel of your peace,
Where there is hatred let me bring your love;
Where there is injury, your pardon Lord;
And where there's doubt true faith in you.

It was late Sunday evening. Sunday morning was a long way off. How I longed to meet the Lord, hear his living word and listen to a reflection for the day.

I am no stranger to God's house. In fact, I serve there regularly. But rather than feed those around me, I longed to be fed. I longed to know that the path I am traveling is the one in His will. I needed to separate myself from my regular surroundings as I searched for the the answer.

That's when I realized: I am blessed. I live in an area abounding in spiritual opportunities. A quick web search revealed a Monday morning worship service held in a church not too far away.

My husband agreed to see our boys off to school while I left to make the 8 a.m. service at a church I'd never visited but was of my childhood denomination.

As I walked through two sets of tall wooden doors, entered the nave, took a back row seat and pulled down a kneeler to pray, I smiled as memories flooded back to me. I thanked God for the opportunity to meet Him in this place of quietude.

That ambiance continued throughout the service - void of all instruments and sung in A capella. The short homily focused on the day's psalm: "You are a priest forever in the line of Melchizedek."

Our young priest informed us that by virtue of our baptism and belief in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we are all priests - not in the same way that he and his superior were ordained ministers - but rather in the sense that we all have the ability to serve the Lord by making offerings to Him. He encouraged us to take our struggles and pain and offer them up to the Lord with fasting and prayer.

That surprising message - coming from a Roman Catholic priest to this struggling Lutheran Sunday School teacher - was the exact reassurance I needed during an unrestful moment in my life and life of the congregation where I serve.

I walked out of the service giving thanks

• that, for those who seek Him, God truly provides -sometimes in places and ways we never imagined;
• for grasping that no matter where the path leads, I will trust God to light my way;
• and mostly for Finding Peace.

Thank You St. Francis for providing hope on Monday, coincidentally, the Feast of St. Anthony!
(Click to read more about this amazing saint.)