The Power of Love
Hi! How is each and every one? The meaningful force behind life is no other but
Love. Authentic Love is what brings and
sustains each one to life.
Following is another
excerpt on the Power of love (From Joseph Tissot, How to profit from your faults pp.
107-108).
I can only suggest that you and I turn
to the Spirit of Love and ask Him to teach us how to love. This will require that you and I develop a
close relationship with Him in quiet moments of prayer, listening and heeding
His leads.
“I beg of you, Theotimus, to look at dear Magdalen,
how she weeps with love: they have taken
away my Lord, and I don’t know where they have laid him. But after finding him through sighs and
tears, she holds onto and possesses him through love. Imperfect love desires and needs him. Repentance seeks and finds him. Perfect love holds and embraces him. They say that in their natural state the rubies
of Ethiopia have a very pale color of fire.
But after being immersed in vinegar, they are set aflame and shine
stunningly. So, too, love prior to
repentance is normally imperfect, but immersed in the acidity of repentance it
is reinforced and becomes excellent love” (Treatise on the Love
of God, 2, 20).
“It is not correct to equate the power of sin with
the power of charity. For sin is the
result of our weakness, and charity comes from the strength of God. If sin abounds in destructive malice, grace
is overflowing. God’s mercy, which wipes
off sins, is exalted and gloriously triumphant against the severity of judgment
(Jas 2:13). Thus our Lord through his
miracles not only healed bodies, not only restored people to health, but also
gave them blessings, making them victorious against illness: such was his goodness toward man” (Ibid., 11, 12).
St. Bernard speaks of a perfume he calls the
ointment of contrition. According to him, “it is an ointment that the
soul, burdened by sins, makes up for herself.
This she does while reflecting on her conduct. She gathers, heaps up, and crushes in the
mortar of conscience the many and varied species of sins. And in the crucible of a fervent heart, she
melts down and fuses all, together with repentance and sorrow, supplying the
necessary heat. She can now say with the
psalmist: My heart became hot within
me. As I mused, the fire burned (Ps
38:3)”. We need not go far in search of
this perfume, for we find it without effort “within the little gardens of our
consciences, and we can collect it whenever we need it. For, if we wish to be sincere, which of us
has not always enough sins and iniquity ready to hand?’ (St.
Bernard, Canticle of Canticles, serm. 10)
Catechism
of the Catholic Church, 1776: “Deep within his conscience man discovers a
law which he has not laid upon himself but which he must obey. Its voice, ever calling him to love and to do
what is good and to avoid evil, sounds in his heart at the right moment… for man has in his heart a law inscribed by
God… His conscience is man’s most secret
core and his sanctuary. There he is alone
with God whose voice echoes in his depths” (Gaudium
et Spes, 16).
Catechism
of the Catholic Church, 1779: It is important for every person to be
sufficiently present to himself in order to hear and follow the voice of his
conscience. This requirement of interiority is all the more necessary as
life often distracts us from any reflection, self-examination or
introspection: Return to your conscience,
question it… Turn inward, brethren, and in everything you do, see God as your
witness
(St Augustine, In ep Jo. 8, 9: PL 35,
2041).
Let us pray for one
another more and more that all together we may give the glory that is due to
the One Who Loves each one of us Most, the One Who Gave each one of us Life and
Who Has Given Up His Life for Love of each one of us.
See
you in the next post, “May tomorrow be a perfect day; may
you find love and laughter along the way; may God keep you in his tender care;
‘til He brings us together again.”
Affectionately,
Guadalupinky
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