Peace

- By Mary Anne Grand

November 9, 2025

key points from this story:

• Remembrance Day focuses on sacrifice.
• War veterans sought peace and freedom.
• Jesus offers deep peace to his disciples.
• Peace can be shared with others.
• Teachings include love and forgiveness.
• World leaders urged to embrace peace.

As I sit to write this message for the paper, Tuesday is Remembrance Day. A day to remember the sacrifices given for our freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of association and freedom of peace. Men and women went to war so that we could have these freedoms. Men and women who are buried on foreign lands who gave their lives for peace. Men and women who returned home broken, living the atrocities that they faced and saw on the battlefields. They walked and fought in those trenches with the ultimate goal of having peace. No more war! Our world leaders have forgotten the meaning of peace, have forgotten who their neighbour is, have forgotten how to live beside their neighbour in peace. And so wars continue, innocent lives are lost, children become orphans, parents bury their children and the bombs drop. We can throw our hands in the air and say “what can we do.” In John 14:27 Jesus is speaking to his disciples, “peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives.” He was assuring them that even in his absence, they could have a deep sense of peace and confidence through the Holy Spirit. We can’t stop the wars, but we can take this deep peace that Jesus gave his disciples and live it in our own lives. We can share it with our neighbours, our families, our communities. We can walk our journeys to the best of our abilities with the teachings of Jesus to love, respect, have patience, show kindness, have faithfulness and self-control. Jesus’ journey wasn’t always fare, what with the Sadducees and the Pharisees judging and trying to catch him with a mistake. But there was something he taught his disciples and we too can learn from it. He advised his disciples when they entered a village if they were not welcomed, that they dust the sand from their sandals and move onto the next village. Perhaps our world leaders could take a page from Jesus’ teaching. As we walk our walk always remember that God is a loving and forgiving God, and was the greatest teacher Jesus had. God Bless and Amen