When Jesus Christ sent seventy missionary disciples throughout the Holy Land two thousand years ago, He sent them with the power to heal and to impart the peace of God that surpasses all understanding. This peace does not imply only the absence of anxiety or inner division; rather, it implies the presence of the Spirit of God, which brings not only peace, but also charity, joy, patience, gentleness, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control. But, receiving, growing in and being filled with this peace isn't automatic. It involves a process of inner transformation that has certain steps for the renewal of both mind and heart so that we can become children of light not only to receive, but also to impart His peace.

The first set of four steps shows us how to be able to begin to receive the peace of God if we don’t already have it. It establishes our friendship with God. It is applicable to Christians and to non-Christians–even to those who do not yet believe in God. When we begin to look into our hearts to see where we are in this process of transformation, we should always focus on taking our next step and not on how far we might still have to go. In fact, even after we have made it to the tenth step, it is God who will lead us further up and further in.

1.     Listen to your conscience. The first step in receiving the Spirit of God and His peace is to listen to the voice of God in our hearts telling us to do good and to avoid evil. Every person has the capacity to hear this voice. Those who don't listen to their conscience and live only thinking about what pleases them without any reference to doing what is right and just, don't have the capacity to receive this peace. When we realize that we have the choice to live a noble life and we begin to repent of the goodness that we lack, then the process of preparing to receive God's peace begins.

2.     Seek to live a noble life. The understanding that we are all called to greater things—to something more noble—can occur gradually and often begins with an encounter with God's love as well as His beauty, truth and goodness. This can happen through other people or writings—especially the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles—that demonstrate what it means to live a good life. Even if we don't recognize that this love comes from God, we can already see that the horizons of what it means to live a rich and meaningful life are much greater than what we had previously thought.

3.     Renounce darkness and sin. When we begin to walk in the light of the Spirit of God, we begin to see the materialistic culture that surrounds us: the culture of abortion, abuse, adultery, fornication, theft, deceit, and lies. We begin to recognize that we cannot have one foot in each world. A choice must be made. If we want to live a good life and experience the peace that surpasses all understanding, we must renounce the darkness and choose the light. In humbly and sincerely repenting of our sins, we are able to receive peace from the Prince of Peace.

4.     Believe in God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. God is Light and sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to be the Light of the world. The Son fully reveals the Father’s love for us, and He fully reveals who we are, so that we can become transformed into children of light. In short, God became man so that man could become God. This happens through faith in Jesus Christ and through baptism into his death and resurrection. We receive His peace and become adopted sons and daughters of God and temples of his Holy Spirit.

The middle set of three steps shows us how we can grow in the peace of God as we grow in our friendship with God. It is applicable especially to baptized Christians and implies a process that can often take months or years. Unlike the first four steps which were more sequential and can happen in hours or days, these steps go together in building our daily intimacy with God.

5.     Pray daily to God in your heart. The only way to grow in our inner peace is to grow in intimacy with God by setting aside time each day to enter into heart-to-heart conversation with Him. Nothing can substitute for a daily encounter in which we listen to God, give praise and thanks to Him as well as ask for forgiveness and what we need. This process of inner transformation is about entering into an intimate partnership of life, light and love with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. This conversation should be sincere, including even expressing negative emotions. God delights in our transparency.

6.     Be merciful and forgive everyone, including yourself. A foundational part of the love of God is to reflect the Father’s merciful love. The love that the Father wants to pour out into us is not only for us; it is also for those around us. Jesus Christ assured us that only the merciful can receive God's mercy. This begins with forgiving all those who have hurt or offended us. We cannot hold resentment towards anyone—including God. We must also pray for our enemies and persecutors, and for those who have earthly authority.

7.     Love and act as a son or daughter of God. The Spirit of God invites the baptized Christian to be filled ever more. It is a call to love God and neighbor and to be transformed by our Heavenly Father who loves us with a love so ardent and merciful that it is incomprehensible. We cannot earn His love, and we also cannot lose it. What this means is that we should not act as if we were orphans. Our identity as His beloved son or daughter is primary. God wants us to become more and more like Him and He will give us the means to do it the more that we try to please Him in all things.

The last set of three steps shows us how we can be filled with the peace of God as our friendship with Him is made perfect. This last set is applicable only to those who are prepared to become true disciples of Jesus Christ. It is not enough to be close to God, we need to learn how to lean on Him and not on our own understanding. For Catholic Christians, this includes listening to and following the teachings of the Catholic Church. It also means that God will increasingly call us out of our comfort zone. If we haven’t felt challenged in this way, we are likely not listening. Completing these steps will allow the Holy Spirit to direct us more intimately with his light and love to transform us into the men and women we were created to be.

8.     Renounce your possessions and plans. Ultimately, God wants us to surrender ourselves completely out of love for Him and be detached from our possessions and even our plans and desires for the future. While we cannot give God everything He deserves, where everything is given, nothing is lacking. He will guide us daily by His Spirit with His plan for our lives. This is the beginning of the last stage of being filled with the peace of God, when we shift from asking Him to bless our plans to asking how we can bless His. Even though giving up the illusion of having control over our lives could seem like a source of anxiety, it is actually the source of inner peace, of knowing our purpose in life.

9.     Trust God and do whatever He tells you. God does have a plan for every human being in the world. We have to see the circumstances in which we live as coming from the hands of God. He always draws good from the suffering He permits. There is always a possibility with God’s help to advance each day step by step. We should not put on our own shoulders what belongs on His. We should do only what He has asked us to do—not more, not less. We just do our bit—and He does the heavy lifting. Listening, trusting, and doing whatever He tells us—this is the daily plan for following Him as a true disciple.

10.  Bring light and help to dark places. Those who have fully surrendered themselves to God, are able to carry His presence in a way that bears spiritual fruit for others. We must shine wherever He has placed us with the ardent love that only comes from the Father. The world doesn't really have a problem of darkness; it has a problem of a lack of light. We must be thermostats and not thermometers. A thermometer reflects the temperature of the environment, while a thermostat sets it. In becoming children of light, we have the power to heal and to impart His peace to the world.

As we grow in intimacy and obedience to God, He will call us to a ministry of friendship where we see others in accordance with their destiny in Him. We will become part of an expanding network of friends, and continually discern and deepen those friendships. As challenges arise, we will need to resist the temptation to focus on what is lacking instead of focusing on what is good. God can work wonders when we offer to Him the little that we are or have. As we grow in intimacy with Him, we will fall and sin much less frequently and deeply. However, we will always have faults and failings. The real challenge is not to never fall or fail, but to always repent quickly and maintain our peace and the presence of the Spirit of God when we do.

The peace of the Lord be with you! Shalom, shalom!!  

Papa Fred, President of MorningStar.Charity

Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, 2025