The Path to Peace for #GDP011

“…be led forth in peace.”

~Isaiah 55:12

The challenge this week over at http://www.global-design-project.com is a theme challenge and the theme is “Christmas”.

I wanted to make a simplistic one layer card for the simple Gospel story, but that didn’t work out.  It needed a border.  My husband asked why I created a dark card for Christmas and I told him it’s a dark week with all the terrorist activity, but like the shepherd, we are walking the path of peace to Bethlehem.  (The word Bethlehem means “House of Bread”).  The “house of bread” for our family is the catholic church (the word “catholic” means “universal”).  There we find Jesus, the Prince of Peace, in Scripture, in the Eucharist (we believe the Eucharist (communion bread) is the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus), in the priest (on the altar), and in the people of the congregation.  In Him we find peace and order, conversion of our hearts, minds and souls, faith, hope, love and friendship.  We are then sent out to serve the Lord in many different ways, including forming our homes into a “domestic church”.  Peace begins at home!  Where do you find your peace?  So, the inside of the card, which I have yet been able to find the time to finish yet, will have gold added to the color palette, along with the Jesus, Mary and Joseph stamp from the Come All Ye Faithful stamp set.  The inside left panel of the card will feature the Three Kings from the same stamp set.   The sentiment will be on the back of the card so that it can be displayed as a mini crèche.  The front panel during Advent and the inside panels during Christmas and Epiphany.  Thank you Global Design Team, for another great challenge, and thank you for putting the spotlight on my Thanksgiving card last week!  We had taken our Boy Scout Troop camping for the weekend in Acadia National Park (along with 450 other Boy Scouts) so that we could help the Friends of Acadia group rake the carriage trails, clean out all the fire pits in the campground, work on trails, etc.  There isn’t cell coverage in the park, so when we drove out to take the boys to Mass in Bar Harbor Sunday morning, I was able to check e-mail.  I was able to get a glimpse at only one e-mail before my phone went dead, and it was a congratulations from Brian King.  Such a fun surprise before learning about the Paris tragedy later that morning.  We pray for the conversion of hatred in all it’s forms and yay for the Global Design Project for its efforts to bring us together in peace from all parts of the globe!  Stamping Peace, Dawn

Edit:  I realized that I should have titled my Christmas Card “A Way of Peace” instead of “The Way to Peace”.  As a priest once told us in his homily (sermon)…”the spiritual life is like a big wagon wheel…God at it’s center and each spoke representing a path to God.  There are many paths but one God.”  My path has been through the Catholic tradition, but I hope we can keep trying to educate one another about our different paths!