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The Lauriston Jesuit Centre |
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Finding God In All Things |
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Finding Peace In Conflict |
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Fr Gerry Hughes SJ - Finding Peace in Conflict
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Mondays in October and November
These sessions are open to anyone interested in Peace, whatever their religious affiliations or lack of them. I am a Christian, a Catholic, a Jesuit priest. I thank God for the insights into the nature of peace and the meaning of Christianity, which I have received from so many people of Christian traditions, of other faiths and of no faith.
Peace is a vast, all-life-embracing and very complex topic, praised by almost all, used as a justification by arms manufacturers and dealers, reflected on in any depth by very few.
Peace is not a concept: it is a quality of human life, open to every human being, affecting every aspect and every moment of life. Peace is a quality that transforms life. It enables us to open our eyes and begin to see things differently, our relationships with ourselves, with other people, whoever they may be, with all creation, and with God, always greater, always beyond, yet nearer to us than we are.
These sessions are exploratory. Lectures will be brief. They do not offer solutions to world conflicts, but are presented to enable us better to recognise the roots of violence and peace within ourselves, for that is the only place where any of us can contribute effectively to world peace.
The weekly sessions will begin at 7.30 pm and end at 9.00pm., with tea/coffee. Each lecture will be followed by a period of silence. This is to allow the audience to notice any felt reaction, whether positive or negative, that they experienced during the lecture. The audience will then be invited to meet in small groups, not to discuss, but to speak to one another, in so far as they are willing, about their own felt reaction to what has been said, and the reason for this reaction, as far as they know.
This method is, in itself, a most useful way of getting in touch with our own roots of peace and violence. The small groups will then be invited to meet together and to reflect on the evening by stating briefly, but without discussion, what they found helpful and what they found unhelpful. This is a peaceful and most effective method of learning more of peace: it practises us in the art of listening!
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