From the Friars: Peace Be With You

Pope Leo XIV began his pontificate with the greeting of the Risen Lord to His disciples: “peace be with you.” Ever since that historic moment people everywhere, especially in the United States and Peru, have been scrambling to learn more about the man and discover possible connections to him. Being an Augustinian quickly brought news of his visits to the Merrimack Valley and even to our own city of Lawrence. As a spiritual son of St. Augustine, the new Pontiff is no doubt familiar with the great theologian’s definition of peace: “tranquillitas ordinis – the tranquility of order.”

In our everyday lives there is a certain sense of peace when things are in right order and functioning smoothly. There is a tranquility that comes from cleaning the garage, or bathroom, or finally getting a much-needed oil change. So it is in our soul, when things are disordered there is anxiety and restlessness. Probably the most famous line that St. Augustine ever wrote was from his Confessions: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” This is the Peace of Christ which the world cannot give, or take away.

This week is also the Feast of another famous Augustinian, our beloved St. Rita of Cascia. The heroic life of this holy woman manifests an interior order where God was clearly loved above all things. She sacrificed her desire to enter the convent in her youth to comply with the wishes of her parents that she would marry. She suffered from an abusive husband but by her prayers and patient goodness won him over. Rita prayed that God would take her sons rather than they would commit grave sin. She reconciled bitter enemies and mystically shared the passion of Our Lord.

May Our Blessed Mother, the Queen of Peace, Saints Augustine and Rita, and all the Holy Angels and Saints intercede for our new Holy Father, that the Peace of Christ would truly reign in his heart. And may he be an instrument of that peace, helping us all to experience the tranquility of order with our hearts resting in the Love and Truth of Our Father in Heaven.

Pax et Bonum.
Fr. Peter