I can't believe I've been doing this for so long! It seems like I just started, but it's almost been 3 years! I'm sure I've deleted some posts, not finished editing some, or left some unwritten...but today, this entry, is number 300 and somehow that is sort of a milestone!
I was going to do a little wrap up of my favorite posts, but hey, that would be a little like making a "Sofie's Choice" (said with smarmy chuckle, hehehe) so, instead, I'll just do a regular post like always.
I was reading my blogfriend Michelle's blog and decided to skip over to her hubs' blog. He posted this and I thought it was a refreshing sentiment (and one that I agree with, 100%).
Voices from the interior
I recently saw an ad in the National Catholic Register from a group called "Sisters Witness Against War" calling for an end to war and calling for a return to the Catholic way of non-violence. While certainly laudable, their call rings hollow to my tone-deaf ears.
I pray for peace every day. I have to because, quite simply, my life hangs in the balance. In the Clauswitzian trinity, I'm in the corner defined by chance. Yet whenever I hear the reasoned and hopeful call to non-violence from someone whose life is that of a contemplative or has themselves answered the call for vocations, I get my dander up. Worse, I feel horribly guilty for it.
We need peace and a lot more love in this world. Every night, we pray for "Peace, Justice, and Forgiveness" as part of our evening grace. The world would be so much better if it had more of those three, and it must have all three or it will have none. Yet the sad reality is that it isn't like that at all.
We have war in this world and we always will, just like there will always be crime, dishonesty, jealousy, and every other human ill you can think of. No amount of prayer will solve that.
Wishing away the problem is no way to solve it. Joining peace protests and taking out half page ads advocating non-violence are nice and your inherent American right, but it doesn't solve the problem. There will be no heaven on earth, and unfortunately, peace in our time is likely to be short lived. If you are lucky, you'll suffer a martyr's fate and not have to live with the results of a non-violent life. Let's face it, if there is something worth dying for, then it's probably worth killing for. Thus there are Soldiers.
I hope the contemplatives of the world, the Sisters of Peace, and everyone else inside the secure walls of America, pray for peace every day. However, their prayers don't obviate the need for Soldiers to secure that peace and tranquility they need to quietly ponder a world without war.
Now, keep in mind that he's a soldier (God bless him!) so he may have a different, more practical outlook on the war than you. I like his attitude (I think I would be like him if I was a boy)...and especially I like his views on BEER! It makes me so thirsty to read his reviews of different kinds of beer! Check out his blog if you have a moment. He's a wonderful, God-fearing, wife-loving, family man!
