The First Sunday of Advent: Peace in Our Families
Peace begins at home. With people who love and respect each other. People who can create peace by working through the conflicts that inevitably arise in daily life.
But we are not born with the knowledge of how to make peace. Love may be a natural response, but patience, reason, and acceptance are skills that must be learned and practiced. And in the face of poverty, of societal exclusion, of employment issues, and all the other pressures that life can bring, sometimes those skills fall apart.
As Dominican Sisters of Peace, we work to build peace and peach peace in all of our ministries. We work to help alleviate poverty and build job skills, which can help to reduce stress. We teach parenting skills, which can help lower anxiety for new parents. We help students succeed in school, which can alleviate conflict. And we work to help families learn and practice the actual skills that help create peace in their homes.
At our Families for Peace events in Columbus, OH, kids and their caregivers shared meals and talked about the components of peace.
We celebrate Peace in our families on this first Sunday of Advent and offer this prayer for peace that begins at home.
Loving God, in this Advent season
Dominican Sister of Peace Maxine Shonk, OP
as we await your newborn presence among us, we ask your special blessing
of peace in all families. Most especially we pray for those families facing poverty, unemployment, prejudice, or violence in our world. We ask that you fill parents and children with a deep experience of your unconditional love and care that lifts them up to a joyful expectation of your Christmas coming.
Please click here to download and print our special card for the First Sunday of Advent.