Valentine Day
Reflection
In contemplating the nature of love, we find it hard to pin down to any one definition. Love is all-encompassing, ever flowing. Love knows no walls, it permeates everything and is visible in everything to those with eyes to see. The nature of God is love, and the nature of all God’s creation is love. Our own deepest nature is of that same divine love. It is our task to find that love in ourselves, be open to it, remain in constant contact with it, and allow it to guide and direct our lives.
Anne Strader
Prayer
Let us love one another for love comes from God.
1John 4:7
Action
Read and reflect on Paul’s commentary on love in 1 Corinthians 13. What does it say to you?
Suggested Reading
I’m giving you a new commandment…to love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.
John 13:34
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8
Spread love everywhere you go: first of all in your own house. Give love to your children, to your wife or husband, to a next door neighbor…Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God’s kindness; kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile, kindness in your warm greeting.
Mother Teresa
The conclusion is always the same:
love is the most powerful
and still the most unknown
energy of the world.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Where there is love there is life.
Mahatma Gandhi
One is loved because one is loved. No reason is needed for loving.
Paulo Coelho
Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.
Lao-tzu
From each heart is a window to other hearts
They are not separated like two bodies,
Just as, even though two lamps are not joined,
Their light is united in a single ray.
Jalaluddin Rumi
The medicine this sick world needs is love.
Hatred must be replaced by love,
and fear by faith that love will prevail.
Peace Pilgrim
In a world so torn apart by rivalry, anger, and hatred, we have the privileged vocation to be living signs of a love that can bridge all divisions and heal all wounds.
Henri Nouwen
Loving can cost a lot but not loving always costs more, and those who fear to love often find that want of love is an emptiness that robs the joy from life.
Merle Shain
Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.
Marcel Proust
So much of what we know of love we learn at home.
Unknown
A friend is what the heart needs all the time.
Henry Van Dyke