Since 1968, the Catholic Church has begun each calendar year with the World Day of Peace, celebrated on January 1, the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. Instituted by Pope Paul VI during the height of the Cold War and Vietnam conflict, this annual observance invites Catholics and all people of goodwill to reflect on peace and commit themselves to being instruments of peace in a world torn by violence and division. Each year, the Pope releases a message addressing pressing challenges to peace and offering spiritual and practical guidance. In his first World Peace Day message, released this December, the newly elected pontiff Pope Leo XIV, chose the theme “Peace be with you all: Towards an ‘unarmed and disarming’ peace” — the very words he spoke from the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica on the evening of his election.
Pope Leo addresses the reality of today: the “confrontational” tone dominating global and national politics is deepening instability daily, while military spending reached $2,718 billion in 2024, a 9.4% increase from the previous year. Yet his message refuses despair. He insists that peace must be protected and cultivated: “Even when it is endangered within us and around us, like a small flame threatened by a storm, we must protect it.” The Pope’s most striking insight is this: “Goodness is disarming. Perhaps this is why God became a child.” Here, the mystery of Christmas becomes the blueprint for peace — divine power choosing vulnerability, omnipotence embracing weakness, heaven entering earth through an infant’s cry.
How can one, inspired by Carmelite spirituality, participate in this vision of the Pope? The saints of Carmel understood that authentic peace begins within and radiates outward, that prayer is not escape from the world’s violence but engagement with it at the deepest level.
Teresa of Ávila – The Peace Within
Pope Leo warns against “narratives devoid of hope, blind to the beauty of others and forgetful of God’s grace” that many call realistic. In her most turbulent years — founding convents amid opposition, dealing with Inquisition scrutiny, managing impossible personalities — St Teresa discovered a truth: peace isn’t the absence of conflict but the presence of God at our centre. “Let nothing disturb you, let nothing frighten you,” Teresa wrote. “All things are passing away: God never changes.” When we know ourselves held by unchanging Love, the chaos around us loses its power to control us. Consequently, the Pope’s call for “unarmed and disarming peace” finds its first application here: disarming our own hearts. Teresa teaches that we must practice interior vigilance, noticing what disturbs our peace and gently redirecting our attention to God. “His Majesty asks of us only two things,” she writes, “love of God and love of neighbour.” Everything else — including our anxious grasping for control — is negotiable.
Each morning, pray Teresa’s words as a daily consecration. Throughout the day, when anger, fear, or anxiety rise, pause and ask: “What is disturbing my peace right now?” Then consciously return to the God who never changes, choosing interior disarmament.
John of the Cross — Hope When the Night is Dark
Cardinal Czerny, presenting the Pope’s message, noted: “In some ways we have been beaten into accepting the logic of war, the logic of armaments, the logic of enemies.” This resignation to darkness is precisely what St John of the Cross challenges. In his Dark Night of the Soul, John describes how God purifies us through times when everything feels dark, when hope seems foolish, when perseverance feels pointless. Yet he insists: “The endurance of darkness causes an admirable light and knowledge to shine forth.” Those who have walked through darkness without abandoning hope become bearers of inextinguishable light. John’s spirituality of nada (nothing) paradoxically makes space for everything. When we release our grip on the need to control outcomes, manage others, or guarantee success, we create space for God to act. This is the “disarming peace” Pope Leo envisions: we lay down our weapons — even our weapons of anxiety and control — and trust divine providence.
Identify one area where you’ve accepted “the logic of war” — perhaps a relationship marked by defensiveness, a situation where you’ve given up hope, a cultural narrative of inevitable conflict you’ve internalised. Consciously choose hope instead. Pray John’s words: “Where there is no love, put love, and you will draw out love.”
Thérèse of Lisieux — Little Acts of Peace
Pope Leo urges everyone to contribute to peace by being kind, declaring that “goodness is disarming.” St Thérèse built an entire spirituality on this insight. Her “little way” demonstrates that we change the world not through grand gestures but through small, faithful acts of love. “Miss no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice,” Thérèse counsels, “here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word; always doing the smallest right and doing it all for love.” In a world of escalating rhetoric and violence, these “little things” become revolutionary acts. The Pope condemns how “it has become increasingly common to drag the language of faith into political battles, to bless nationalism, and to justify violence and armed struggle in the name of religion.” Thérèse offers the antidote: faith expressed in sacrificial love that costs us something personal.
Practice one deliberate act of disarming kindness daily. Smile at someone who irritates you. Speak gently when you want to snap. Choose understanding over judgment. Let someone have the last word. These small surrenders cultivate interior peace that becomes contagious.
Lawrence of the Resurrection — Presence Over Politics
Brother Lawrence, the humble Carmelite lay brother, discovered that the practice of God’s presence transforms everything, including how we engage in conflict. “The time of business does not differ from the time of prayer,” he taught. Whether washing dishes or dealing with disagreement, we can remain aware of divine presence. The Pope, in his World Peace Day message, calls for “prayer, spirituality and ecumenical and interreligious dialogue as paths of peace and as languages of encounter within traditions and cultures.” Brother Lawrence shows us how: by cultivating moment-by-moment awareness of God, we meet others not primarily as threats or allies but as fellow human beings held in divine love.
Practice “turning to God” throughout your day in the form of brief moments of acknowledging His presence. When reading news of violence, pause and pray. When tempted to dehumanize political opponents, remember they too are held by God. When encountering difference, ask: “How is God present here?”
Elizabeth of the Trinity — Becoming Praise
Elizabeth of the Trinity lived only twenty-six years but discovered that constant praise is the ultimate weapon against despair. “O my God, Trinity whom I adore,” she prayed, “help me forget myself entirely so to establish myself in You.” Pope Leo insists that “peace exists; it wants to dwell within us” and urges us to reject fatalistic attitudes “as if the dynamics involved were the product of anonymous impersonal forces.” Elizabeth’s life of praise demonstrates this: by choosing to see God’s goodness even in darkness, we resist the narrative that evil must triumph.
Begin and end each day with praise, even (and especially) when circumstances tempt despair. Thank God for three specific goods, however small. This isn’t denial of evil but refusal to let evil have the final word. Praise disarms our tendency toward cynicism and despair.
From Contemplation to Action
The Carmelite way is never purely interior. Contemplation births action; interior peace empowers prophetic witness. Pope Leo’s message demands both personal transformation and public engagement.
- Refuse the logic of enemies: Practice seeing everyone, including opponents, as human beings made in God’s image. This doesn’t mean abandoning convictions; it is rather a refusal to dehumanize those who disagree.
- Protect the flame: As Pope Leo urges, protect and cultivate peace “like a small flame threatened by a storm.” In families, workplaces, parishes, and neighbourhoods, be the one who de-escalates, who speaks peace, who interrupts cycles of retaliation.
- Pray as resistance: Dedicate time daily to pray for peace — in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, Myanmar, Nigeria, Asia, and wherever violence reigns. Your hidden intercession joins a global chorus that refuses to accept war as inevitable.
- Witness with your life: The Pope calls believers to “actively refute, above all by the witness of their lives, these forms of blasphemy that profane the holy name of God” by justifying violence through religion. Live so peacefully, love so radically, serve so humbly that your life becomes an argument for God’s peace.
The Revolution of Goodness
The world believes in the logic of war. We dare to believe in the logic of love. The world trusts weapons. We trust in the God who became a child. The world seeks peace through strength. We seek it through surrender to the Prince of Peace.
Let us begin 2026 not with resolutions to do more but with commitment to be more — more present, more peaceful, more willing to be disarmed and disarming. Pope Leo XIV’s first World Peace Day message offers the Church and the world a vision of peace achieved not through superior firepower but through superior love, not through strength of arms but through strength of character, not through domination but through vulnerability. As we enter this new year, let us embrace the Pope call with Carmelite hearts — contemplative, hopeful, quietly revolutionary.