Reflection
Lent is an invitation to a deeper love, a recognition that we become what we love; a realization that how we love changes the world. The journey through the cross is learning to love through the breakdowns and sufferings of our fragile lives. What seems like invincible boundaries of our personhood can suddenly be shaken at their roots and we can begin to see just how tenuous life is, that we exist by the gracious gift of God’s merciful love. Once we awaken to this love, we can begin to recognize God’s love in all aspects of life: in the snow and ice, in the upset neighbors, in those struggling with Covid, in the anxious students, and in the dark, silent moments of the unknown. Everyone is suffering in one way or another and everyone is in need of love. However, it is difficult to respond in love if we are preoccupied with ourselves.
Ilia Delio
Prayer
God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.
1John 4:16
Action
What is your concept of God as love? What does it mean in your relationships with God, your neighbor and yourself? How can it break through distortions in our judgments and relationships with others?
Suggested Reading
Let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
1 John 4:7-8
And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
Colossians 3:14
To say that I am made in the image of God is to say that love is the reason for my existence, for God is love. Love is my true identity. Selflessness is my true self. Love is my true character.
Thomas Merton
The people who know God well—mystics, hermits, prayerful people, those who risk everything to find God—always meet a lover, not a dictator.
Richard Rohr
Love will remind us that we are a part of life—that we belong to each other and to this living, suffering planet. Love will reconnect us to the sacred ways known to our ancestors, as well as awaken us to new ways to be with each other and Earth.
Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world.
Jack Layton
Love is similar to alchemy, as both are capable of transmuting something basic to something gold.
Mary Paleologos