Dear Friends,
Have you ever wanted to change the world, to leave a lasting imprint that will be felt long after you are gone? I do. I specifically joined a lay movement in 1999 to change the world with Jesus. After 26 years, I’m still holding on to that. The other day, I came across a song the Newsboys popularized in 2013 called That’s How You Change the World that spoke to my heart. The song begins with:
All my life I had big dreams
To do big things and make a change
And all the while I just passed by
The simple needs right here next to me
So it is, with all our lives. Every day brings new opportunities for Christians to be agents of change for the good of others. Peter Damian, a Saint and a Doctor of the Church was very much an agent of change.
Peter’s parents died when he was young. He was educated by one of his brothers and became a teacher. He felt the call to a monastic life of seclusion, prayer and penance. At the age of thirty-five, Brother Peter Damian was appointed Prior of his Benedictine monastery and eventually named a cardinal, a position he did not desire.
He wrote many letters to bring about clergy reforms. He fought against simony (the selling of Church offices and spiritual favors) and he led the Gregorian Reform Movement to address sexual abuses by clerics. In all his tasks, Peter Damian gave a compelling personal witness of holiness. The way he lived his life inspired others to change.
You and I may not be called to reform the Church, but we are all called to be agents of change among our neighbors, speaking truth in times of confusion, extending mercy where there is unforgiveness and offering love where there is hatred.
It’s the prayer in an empty room
Little things we do when nobody’s around
A hand reaching out to a heart in doubt
It’s the smallest spark that can light the dark
That’s how you change the world
When we bow our heads in prayer tonight, let us ask for the grace to be the spark that lights up someone else’s dark or the love that comforts another’s heart. It may go unnoticed but it will make the world a better place one soul at a time.
Yours in the Heart of Jesus,
Donna
