Godly Quietness

Grant, O Lord, we beseech thee: that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered by thy governance; that thy Church may joyfully serve thee in all godly quietness; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen. - Collect for the Fifth Sunday after Trinity, Divine Worship: The Missal.

‘If we are to live in the world in peace how must we be governed? Peaceably. There must not be war. Nations must work together in industry, commerce, art, literature, and in every other way. We must work together as God’s children, seeing in every man… a brother for whom Christ died. This can only come about by all the peoples of the world thinking and behaving as though they believed God to be the Father of all men; letting Him rule in their hearts and lives: realising that He is their Maker and Redeemer, their Saviour and their God. He is desirous that all men should live together as brothers in love and goodwill. God must be allowed to govern.
 
This can never happen until every nation has heard the good tidings of great joy of which the angels told the shepherds on that first Christmas Day. The angels’ song said that His birth would bring peace to those who accepted Him, “Among men in whom is his good pleasure.” So what the world needs more than anything is the news of the glorious Gospel of peace. That must shine throughout the world before peace can reign in the hearts and minds of all men’.

from Teaching the Collects, 1965, by HE Sheen