Father Ignatius to the townspeople of Azpeitia about real peace (1540):
Let me repeat that there is no desisting in my earlier desires that you continue to enjoy in this life peace and quiet of heart in the true peace of our Lord, not in the peace of the world. In the world there are many princes, great men and little men, who make truces and treaties in their external lives but in whom true interior peace never enters because they entertain animosities, envy, and many other evil desires against the very persons with whom they have come to terms. But the peace of our Lord, which is interior, brings along with it those other gifts and graces that are necessary to salvation and to eternal life. The reason is that this peace makes one love one’s neighbour for the love of one’s
Creator and Lord, and with this love one keeps all the commandments of the law, as St. Paul says: “He that loveth his neighbor hath fulfilled the law,” because he loves his Creator and Lord and his neighbor for his Lord’s sake.
Keep alive within us the flame of hope, so that with patience and perseverance we may opt for dialogue and reconciliation. In this way
may peace triumph at last, and may the words “division”, “hatred” and “war” be banished from the heart of every man and woman. Lord,
defuse the violence of our tongues and our hands. Renew our hearts and minds, so that the word which always brings us together will be “brother”, and our way of life will always be that of: Shalom, Peace, Salaam!
Amen.