Seek peace and pursue it

As part of the 30th International Summer University program, the audience was treated to a community choir improvisation in St. Imre’s Church. This musical performance offers a meditative, prayerful experience. The choir improvisation was led by Zoltán Mizsei, church musician and researcher at iASK, with Várszegi Asztrik O.S.B., emeritus abbot, celebrating Vespers and jazz musician István Grencsó accompanying on saxophone. The speech given at the festive Vespers will be published. You can read it here:

Dear Friends!

We are celebrating the Vespers of the Feast of St. John the Baptist, the evening prayer, in St. Imre Church. On this occasion, I would like to share a few thoughts and reflections with the participants of the Kőszeg conference.

The scholars at the international conference in Kőszeg are searching for the path to a peaceful future in their lectures and discussions. They are asking representatives of the spirit and knowledge how peace can be achieved in the world for the benefit of all, so that we may prosper. They are absolutely right, because we have no future without peace. The representatives of the future are those who have peace in their hearts and who seek this peace. The key to our prosperity and our future is people who create peace. The message of the conference sums this up as follows:

“Interconnected global transformations are intensifying, causing a deepening geopolitical crisis that could lead to the collapse of the rules-based international order.”

The conference is intended as a universal invitation to peaceful action and joint reflection so that we can hope for and live in a peaceful future.

If we consider this, we see that despite the achievements of science, the key lies in human beings themselves. If there is peace in the human heart, it can be created in the environment. A peaceful future can be created by people who have peace in their hearts and who rely on the achievements of science.

In searching for old and ever new ways to achieve this peaceful heart, I would like to mention one example. Such a person was Benedict of Nursia, who lived at the time of the collapse of ancient culture and, in his monastic rule, condensed this wisdom into a single sentence as a spiritual legacy for future generations: “Seek peace and pursue it.” His disciples, the Benedictines, contributed in the spirit of this spiritual tradition to the construction of Europe and European civilization, which we may debate, but whose legacy we cannot do without in rebuilding. I would just like to add that Benedict’s later followers also shaped the spirituality of this beautiful and charming little town in western Transdanubia (1815-1948).

Those who make Benedict’s Rule and wisdom their rule of life still have the opportunity today to live a harmonious life free from extremes, and to unleash creative forces to transform their environment. His spirituality and harmony can bring order into our own souls and into the world. There is no Nobel Prize in Christianity, but Benedict of Nursia received recognition when, in the fall of 1964, Pope Paul VI honored him with titles and recognition in the church of Montecassino, which had been destroyed by war but rebuilt.

Each title is an invitation to us in a secularized world searching for direction.

These titles are:

Pacis Nuntius – Messenger of Peace.

Unitatis effector – Worker for Unity

Civilis cultus magister – Teacher of Culture and Civilized Life.

Patronus totius Europae – Patron Saint of All Europe.

Benedict’s life is an eternally relevant Christian and human model. The individual and communal life he lived and realized was and still is suitable for bringing the joy and peace of the “divine milieu” to many through the means of culture, while immersing himself in it through prayer.

Dear friends!

Let us consider the ancient wisdom: “Seek peace and pursue it!”