Sometimes I think that I don’t even know what love means, God. Show me.
As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ.
—1 Corinthians 12:12 (NAB)
“Love for each other is of very great importance. Anything, no matter how annoying, can be easily borne by those who love each other. Anything that causes annoyance must be quite exceptional. If the world kept this commandment, I believe it would take us a long way toward keeping the rest.” —St. Teresa of Avila
What may I do to build up the body of Christ?
Let my cry come before you, O LORD; give me understanding according to your word.
—Psalm 119:169 (NRSV)
“[St. Antony] very often spent the entire night in prayer and ate only once a day, after sunset. Sometimes he continued fasting for two or three days at a time and only ate and drank on the fourth day. He ate bread and salt, and drank a little water. I think it is better not to say anything about his consumption of meat and wine, for most monks do not consume either one. When he did allow himself to rest, he used a woven rush mat covered with goat’s hair. Sometimes he would simply lie on the bare ground, and he refused to anoint his body with oil. For he used to say that it is hardly possible that the bodies of those who use such things, and especially young men’s bodies, should grow strong if they are softened by smooth oil. Instead they ought to use rigorous exercises to control the flesh, as the apostle Paul said: ‘Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong’ (2 Cor. 12:10).” —St. Athanasius
O God, You know I’m no saint! But, today, make me just a little more like one.
My lips will pour forth praise, because you teach me your statutes.
—Psalm 119:171 (NRSV)
“Someone asked Antony, ‘What must one do in order to please God?’ He replied, ‘Pay attention to what I tell you. Whoever you may be, always have God before your eyes. Whatever you do, do it according to the testimony of the Holy Scriptures. Wherever you live, do not easily leave it. Keep these three precepts and you will be saved.’” —The Wisdom of the Desert Fathers and Mothers
I will practice these three things: keeping God before my eyes, reading the Holy Scriptures, and being steadfast.
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
—Romans 8:28 (ESV)
“God gave me the grace to open my intelligence quite early and to engrave so deeply in my memory the remembrances of my childhood that it seems to me that the things that I’m going to tell about happened yesterday. Without a doubt, Jesus wanted, in His love, to make me know the incomparable mother that He gave me, but whom His Divine hand was hastening to crown in Heaven!” —St. Thérèse of Lisieux
Many of us have been blessed with parents who taught us to love God. Let us give thanks.
For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.
—Jeremiah 29:11 (NRSV)
“Everything on earth and in heaven compared with God is nothing, as Jeremiah says in these words: ‘I beheld the earth, and it was empty, and it was nothing; I beheld the heavens, and saw that they had no light. When he looked at the heavens and saw no light in them, he says that all the bright stars in the skies, compared with God, are pure darkness. All created things are nothing and their passions are less than nothing, since they are impediments to transformation in God. The soul that expends its passions on created things will not be able to comprehend God, for until it is cleansed it will not be able to possess God, either on this earth through pure transformation of love, or beyond this earth with a clear vision.’” —St. John of the Cross
My soul rests, and waits, in You.
For this is the message you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
—1 John 3:11 (NRSV)
Christ spoke thus to St. Catherine of Siena: “Love of Me and of one’s neighbor are one and the same thing; and, so far as the soul loves Me, it loves its neighbor, because love toward one’s neighbor issues from Me. This is the means I have given you, so that you may exercise and prove your virtue; because, inasmuch as you can do Me no profit, you should do good to your neighbor. This proves that you possess Me by grace in your soul, producing much fruit for your neighbor and making prayers to Me, as you seek with sweet and loving desire My honor and the salvation of souls.’”
Show me my “neighbor” today, Lord. I promise I will respond.