International Day of Peace (September 21) & Saint Francis of Assisi (October 8)

Saint Francis of Assisi was born in Assisi, Italy and died October 3, 1226. He devoted his life to God by giving up all of his riches to the poor and helping out in the Christian community. He shows that people should help others in need and put them before ourselves. He also shows that people can change from bad to good.  Amen

Calvin F.

                                                       

If people of all nations put the needs of others before their own as St. Francis did, we would inhabit a very peaceful world. Let us each do what we can as individuals to put more emphasis on the less fortunate and less on our own needs, particularly the self-serving practices that exacerbate war and violence, starting with the Prayer to Saint Francis.

 The International Day of Peace, (Not to be confused with World Day of Peace 1/1), observed annually on Sept. 21, is dedicated to world peace, and specifically the absence of war and violence. The day, first celebrated in 1982, is kept by many nations, political groups, military groups, and peoples. In 2013, for the first time, the Day was dedicated by the Secretary-General of the United Nations to peace education, the key preventive means to reduce war sustainably.

To inaugurate the day, the United Nations Peace Bell is rung at UN Headquarters (NYC). The bell is cast from coins donated by children from all continents except Africa, and was a gift from the United Nations Association of Japan, as "a reminder of the human cost of war"; the inscription on its side reads, "Long live absolute world peace".  (Source: Wikipedia).