Notice During the Covid-19 Outbreak
In solidarity, we at the Interfaith Peace Project stand together in these times of heart break and upset. Some of you may have lost friends or family members. Some of you may have lost your job and your income; some may be working overtime to help with the crisis. Some of you may be home and alone and some may be trying to figure out a new way to live. Please let us know how we can help. If you would like a phone appointment with any of us, give us a call.You may call or email Tom at:
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September 15, 2020
Dear Friends,
In honor and celebration of The International Day of Peace, Thomas P. Bonacci, C.P., is sharing a daily reflection from various sources from September 11 to September 21, 2020. Today is Day 5 of those reflections. If you missed some of the reflections, you can find them on our website (under Blogs), interfaithpeaceproject.org.
“The International Day of Peace was established in 1981 by the United Nations General Assembly. Two decades later, in 2001, the General Assembly unanimously voted to designate the Day as a period of non-violence and cease-fire. The United Nations invites all nations and people to honour a cessation of hostilities during the Day, and to otherwise commemorate the Day through education and public awareness on issues related to peace.”
For more information on the day click here or go to: https://www.un.org/en/observances/international-day-peace
The Interfaith Peace Project
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KINDNESS
Eleven Days of Peace: Day 5
Eleven Days of Peace: Day 5
Celebrating The International Day of Peace
© motortion stock.adobe.com
Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.
Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.
Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
it is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you every where
like a shadow or a friend.
– Naomi Shihab Nye
With Permission
RESPONSE
I will remember the struggles and setbacks in my life.
I will remember my sorrows with deep self-respect and gentleness of heart.
I will seek to identify with others who are suffering now.
I will bless them, love them, and show kindness if and when I can.
I will live on the verge of being kind to all especially those who know no kindness.
Off