The vision of Towards Peace

Published on April 25, 2020

The vision of Towards Peace is to provide a safe supportive space where people who have been affected by abuse in a Church context can be accompanied as they seek their own experience of spiritual peace one step at time. Towards Peace provides a spiritual direction service. Up to nine sessions with a specially trained spiritual companion can be made available; there is no fee. Spiritual direction offers a safe space to attend to your own spiritual life and sense of the Sacred. It is an ancient practice in many religious traditions. Within the Christian tradition, spiritual direction offers a way to tune into the presence of God’s love within your own life. Phone 01 5053028; email towardspeace@iecon.ie web www.towardspeace.ie

Reflection

Jesus tells his disciples to look at him and touch him. Then he asks them for something to eat. What does Pope Francis say we can learn from these three actions of Jesus?
The second verb is to touch. By inviting the disciples to touch him, to verify that he is not a ghost—touch me!— Jesus indicates to them and to us that the relationship with him and with our brothers and sisters cannot remain “at a distance.” Christianity does not exist at a distance; Christianity does not exist only at the level of looking. Love requires looking and it also requires closeness; it requires contact, the sharing of life. The Good Samaritan did not limit himself to looking at that man whom he found half dead along the road: he stopped, he bent down, he treated his wounds, he touched him, he loaded him onto his mount and took him to the inn. And it is the same with Jesus himself: loving him means entering into a communion of life, a communion with him.
Being Christian is not first a doctrine or a moral ideal; it is a living relationship with him, with the Risen Lord: we look at him, we touch him, we are nourished by him and, transformed by his Love; we look at, touch and nourish others as brothers and sisters.
Pope Francis,