Life in community can be very dynamic. When you live everyday with the same people in a small place, often you live what they live. You carry each other’s burdens, and together you strive for perfection.
                It is as we read in 1 Corinthians 12:26; when one part of the body suffers, every part suffers with it, if one part of the body is well, all the body is well.  When one person is down, for any reason, often it brings others down. Everybody feels and carries that burden, often not knowing what it is they carry. When someone’s happy, then everybody is happy; life seems easier and the atmosphere is calm.  From my experience, that is the simple reality of everyday life in community.  There are obviously some people who are not affected by these feelings on such a level, and those who supress them. Some people don’t even notice. But that’s for another time.
 
                Well my question is, what happens when one person is feeling down and the other feels happy? That is when it can get real messy. When a person is down, feels sad or has a bad day, then the person who is happy at that moment can seem very annoying. That makes them upset even more and they may close themselves into their own place of safety within. On the other hand it can be quite difficult for the person who’s very happy to understand the sadness of the upset person, and because, of its nature, cheerfulness is to be shared, they try to share it with them. That often seems to have an opposite effect, which may bring them down too or make them avoid the sad one.  
                For everyone else it can be difficult too. They may become angry and annoyed with the happy, cheerful person for making the upset person even more upset. That can also bring them down, so everybody is upset. Then some may join the happy person and avoid the sad one, some hide, and some join the upset person trying to reach out and help them. They are often disappointed and upset with others for not caring enough.
 
                It obviously doesn’t have to be this way and most of time it is not. If this doesn’t resonate with you, that’s wonderful. I find myself in all of these roles, at different times. But let us be aware of what we project through our faces and our behaviour. Let us offer our suffering to Jesus. Let us be brave to ask for help when we’re in difficult mood. And let us always share joy with love and gentleness.  Let us choose joy in the most difficult and upsetting moments for, however we feel, we are chosen, loved, anointed and precious children of God, saved by Him and sent out to the whole world. The whole world starts at our neighbour.
 
                “Cheerfulness is a sign of a generous person who forgetting all things, even herself, tries to please her God in all she does for souls. Cheerfulness is often a cloak which hides a life of sacrifice, continual union with God, fervour and generosity.” (St Teresa of Calcutta)
               
                “If you only knew what goes on within my heart. Sometimes the pain is so great that I feel as if everything will break. The smile is a big cloak which covers a multitude of pains.” (St Teresa of Calcutta)
 
                “I want to smile even at Jesus and so hide if possible the pain and the darkness of my soul even from Him.”  (St Teresa of Calcutta)

                I am like a guitar string, made by a creator for a specific purpose to bring joy, love and peace in beautiful harmony; "the song of love." I am placed on specific place and I can’t determine the circumstances of my life. Like a string I am placed in exact place where my life makes sense in a bigger picture than I can see.  Same as a guitar string, I am unique but not alone, unique but equal to the others.
            I can spend all my life trying to be one of the other strings. I may try to be strong deep E, or gentle G, but then there would always be someone missing – me. I have a role to play in greater melody, bigger story than just myself.
            And then obviously I need to be tuned. As a string makes itself totally available to the player, I have to make myself fully available to the one who, through me, can play the song of love. I need to surrender myself totally to him and trust him that he knows what he is doing.
            And yes, often I feel that God is stretching me little too much, but he is the creator and the player, the original musician. He knows me and loves me, I am his work of art. He would never let me down. For without strings guitar would be an empty space, a sound without melody. Without us the world would be an empty place, a place without love of God.
            Let us be used as an instrument of love, let us make ourselves available so he can use us and through us, with our participation, bring the song of love, joy and peace into every heart. Let us play in harmony.
 

What is peace? A time of comfort, satisfaction, state of calm...?  
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                Somewhere I heard that peace is absence of war. I kind of agree with that, but peace is also so much more than it seems.
               In Czech language we have two words for peace. One is “Mír” – which is absence of war. The other is “Pokoj” – which seems to be a state of tranquility and stillness, moment of calm, comfort and lack of worries.
              But I do like the phrase: “Peace, absence of war.”  Though we need to define what kind of war we mean. The most obvious is probably the absence of physical war, fighting and killing. But there are bigger wars than that. They rage inside our hearts. We are constantly in battle. Peace in the world will never come about from the outside. It must come from the inside; from the heart. That peace is a gift, gift from God.
                Jesus said: “Peace I leave you, my peace I give you.” What is he giving us is the grace to stop the war inside our beings. This peace comes about, when spirit, mind, body and soul are in unity, rooted in Christ. In that peace we can find joy in any circumstances. We can find peace even in the middle of war. And we have a duty: “When you enter a house, first say: Peace to this house.”
                We need to give out peace to all the peoples and through that we can change the world, we can stop wars – from the inside.
                Let us pray then for peace in hearts of those who have none, peace in our hearts, our families, our nations, and peace in our world. 

I just found some thoughts about media, which I wrote down few years ago, using analogy from J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy book, “The Lord of the Rings.”

                I would compare media to a Palantír (sometimes translated as "Seeing Stone" but literally meaning "Farsighted" or "One that Sees from Afar"; something like a television). It is a fictional magical artefact a crystal ball, used for both communication and as a means of seeing events in other parts of the world.  
               Palantírs were made by elf Feanor for a long distance communication. They were given to people of Numenor and they were very good thing.  But as many powerful great things when in wrong hands, it became thing of destruction. Sauron, The Dark Lord, captured one of the Palantírs and used it against the people. And not being able to control people through it directly, he decided to attack in more secret but still very powerful way.
                He shown to Denethor, steward of Gondor, only what he wanted him to see and through that he attacked one of most precious virtues in our lives; his hope. Through Palantir, Denethor saw that there is no hope for humanity seeing only destruction, suffering and death and that led him to despair and to his death. For without hope any difficulty seems unbearable.
                Our media have the same power. They are great thing but in wrong hands they can be very destructive. People in media have ability to decide what to show us and what to keep secret. They dictate what we see and through fear they control our lives.
               
​                And so I appeal to everyone to look around, there is so much beauty everywhere. Do not let anything steal your hope. Focus on the positive and set your hope in Jesus.