Peace be with you.

Behold the peace that stands upright in the room and speaks first.

Behold the peace that bears scars
but does not apologize for them,
peace that has walked through locked doors
and still smells faintly of the grave emptied behind it.

You say it to us
not as a wish
but as a command.

Peace be with you.

Then we must not hesitate.

As the Father sent you
into dust and hunger,
into misunderstanding and rejection,
into the long obedience of love,
so you send us
with breath still warm from your Spirit.

Send us
with peace that confronts violence,
with mercy that refuses simplification,
with truth that does not flinch
when it is costly.

Send us
into rooms still locked by fear,
into systems trained to forget the least,
into conversations where Your name
will not be welcomed.

Let our peace be unsettling.
Let it interrupt injustice.
Let it expose the lie
that silence is the same as love.

Send us
rooted in the Father’s will,
empty of self-preservation,
obedient even unto the breaking,
carried by the same love
that sent you first.

Speak it again over us, Lord,
so we may go.

Peace be with you.

-based on John 20:21 and the foundational mission of the School Sisters of Notre Dame