It was a cold, brisk April dawn as I entered the church. This was to be my fifth pilgrimage to Monte Camera Sanctuary from the Church of Santa Maria Assunta. Located in the hills, about five miles from the tiny Italian village of Pieve di Compresseto in Umbria, this sanctuary is devoted to Mary. Since 1647, the townspeople, full of faith and prayers, have been climbing to the tiny chapel to celebrate the Feast of the Madonna of Monte Camera every Tuesday after Easter.
The first pilgrimage took place 376 years ago when the bubonic plague was devastating the population. Those who were well enough went in procession to this sanctuary to pray to the Madonna, asking her to intercede on their behalf. When they returned, everyone who had been sick was miraculously cured. Since then, the villagers have returned every year in procession to this chapel to commemorate the miracle. This year was going to be different for me, as I was planning to carry a special prayer.
You can read more about my pilgrimage (which I hope to join next week as well) to this beautiful sanctuary and the prayer that I carried with me. This story was published as a “Spiritual Journey” by Unity Magazine (April/May 2024).
Feel free to enjoy and share “Sacred Journeys: Two Sisters Pilgrimage.” (Note that the graphic makes more sense if you open the pdf and view it in two pages!)
There is talk of a ceasefire, humanitarian pause, resolutions, and emergency joint summits. But Peace? Where is the Peace?
I have been searching for peace for a long time. Both inside and out. Longing for peace, I sometimes to go to Assisi, also known as the City of Peace (near my home), just to ring the Peace Bell.
Not far from the Basilica of San Francesco, the Peace Bell is outside of the old walls of the city in the nearby woods. The bell is held aloft by four granite columns, each representing a different religion: Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism. Designed by German artist Gerhard Kadletz, the bell is named Regina Pacis (Queen of Peace) and it unites the four religions to announce peace with one voice.
Inaugurated in 2007, the Peace Bell’s official song is “Numquam. Renascantum. Uis. Bellum. Terror.” (Never again violence. Never again war. Never again terror.) This declaration is inscribed on the lower edge of the bell along with the signatures of four religious leaders: Cardinal Ratzinger who later became Pope Benedict XVI; His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama; Ali Gomaa, the Gran Mufti of Egypt; and Chief Rabbi of Israel, Jona Metzger.
The Author rings the bell with artist Gerhard Kadletz and Brother Thomas.
When rung, the sweet message of the Peace Bell resounds across the town and out into the world.
This Peace Bell should be ringing 24/7!
Unbind our Hearts to Ring Out Peace
Gerhard Kadletz, the artist who created the Peace Bell, recently completed another work, entitled Wo ist der Frieden? (Where is the Peace?).
Mr. Kadletz’s new bell is an exact replica of the Peace Bell in Assisi. However, he has deliberately silenced his new bell. This bell is tightly wound with barbed wire from the Ganacker concentration camp in Germany. The bell itself precariously hangs on a 10,000-year-old bog oak that is partially charred. And the clapper is tightly tied with rope so the bell can not be rung.
May this work of art remind us of our responsibility to radiate and be disciples of peace. Peace doesn’t just happen. It requires us to engage with it, to be in relationship with it. Just as we have to pull the cord to ring the Peace Bell, so must we pull the cords of our broken heartstrings and work towards peace within. We must unwrap the barbed wire entwined around the our inner Peace Bell and unbind the rope that holds fast our clapper from connecting with the bell.
Angels are Waiting to Help Us
We can call on the multitude of angels around to help us. They are often hanging about, just waiting for us to ask for their assistance. In a Umbrian sanctuary near my home is a beautiful 15th-century fresco of the Archangel Saint Michael. He is the only angel mentioned by name in the Torah (Judaism), Bible (Christianity), and Qur’an (Islam). In all of three faiths, believers consider Michael an angel who fights evil with the power of good. Hence he is often depicted with a sword. During the time this sanctuary was built, the Archangel Saint Michael would have been seen as a protector of soldiers, as the angel that accompanies their souls to heaven, and as a healer. In fact, the sanctuary is built near a spring and its waters are said to have therapeutic properties.
In this fresco, we see the Archangel Saint Michael with his wings over two armed soldiers. The Archangel unites them in a gentle embrace, as they, in turn, embrace and kiss each other in reconciliation. It is said that centuries ago, one day a year, nearby warring factions would come to this sanctuary to reconcile their differences.
Let us Arrive at a Fruitful, Dynamic and Constructive Peace
Two Islamic angels write in the Book of Life, suggesting angels’ ongoing and attentive interest in human affairs (1280 A.D., Iraq)
“The Angel of Peace wraps the whole world in its big white wings…
“Some people may be helped along by the image of a big Angel, with white wings, which emanates streams of peace, spreading waves of Peace throughout ourselves, our country, the whole Earth, the human race.
“Real Peace is a peak to climb, an ideal to conquer, a point of arrival.
“True Peace has to remain steadfast before evil, in times of pain, during emotional reactions, in the midst of any kind of assault, in the face of any loss, defeat or separation.
“True Peace coexists with inner personal suffering. It is not a mood of joyfulness and delight; it produces a double life inside ourselves, till the moment when our personality appears completely regenerated, so that the inner Peace will become incarnated and the whole being permeated through PEACE, transformed into PEACE.”
Yoko Ono displayed her message “Imagine Peace” in London, Berlin, Los Angeles, Melbourne, Milan, New York and Seoul (2022).
I stand here ironing t-shirts a green dress your shirt for work. And think how absurd with a genocide not miles away.
An endless litany of words drained of all meaning and force. Genocide, ethnic cleansing, displacement, occupation, hostage and liberation. Under siege and mass atrocities.
Words without context. Terrorist. Nazi. Zionist. Fascist. Hamas. Antisemitic. Jew. Christian. Moslem. Massacre and holocaust.
Slippery collective shadow ruthlessly reckless. Animal. Beast. Less than human. Savages.
I ease the iron across a tablecloth as the numbers move before my eyes. 2.3 million, hundreds of thousands. 1400 dead… 3000 dead… 5000 dead… 8000 dead. 732 entire families dead. Under the rubble dead.
Non-stop bombardment. Whispering within the sliver of silence not one word. Peace.
Only the voice of a Jewish grandmother. Turns to her captor, shakes his hand, “Shalom.” Only the voice of a Palestinian grandmother learns her daughter dead, her granddaughter dead, “Please come to me in my dreams. Because I cannot live without you.”
I stand and iron your handkerchiefs, my white summer dress to hang in closets and place in drawers. But how to wash and iron this epic human tragedy? And in what drawer do I place it?
Please come to me in my dreams. Because I cannot live without you. God’s mercy. God’s charity. Love and kindness. Justice. Empathy and compassion. But most of all Peace.
Love and Will 