Love.
Deus Caritas Est - God is
Love.
Love alone counts in the
court of the Lord. Paltu, Indian mystic, quoted after: Miriam Bokser Caravella,
The Holy Name. P.255.
Every word of
every tongue is Love telling a story to her own ears.
Every thought in every mind, She whispers a secret to her own Self.
Every vision in every eye, She shows her beauty to her own sight.
Every smile on every face, She reveals her own joy for herself to enjoy.
Love courses through everything,
No, Love is everything.
How can you say, there is no love, when nothing but Love exists?
All that you see has appeared because of Love.
All shines from Love,
All pulses with Love,
All flows from Love -
No, once again, all is Love!
Fakhruddin 'Iraqi
(1213-1289), a Persian Sufi, quoted after: Novak, Philip. The World's Wisdom,
P.329. OGN#655, 8 Feb 2015.
There is nothing sweeter
than love, nothing stronger, nothing higher, nothing wider, nothing fuller,
nothing better in heaven or earth; for love is born of God, and only in God,
above all that he has created, can it find rest. Thomas A Kempis, Imitation of
Christ, III.5.3
Love is always patient and
kind; it is never jealous; love is never boastful or conceited; it is never
rude or selfish; it does not take offense, and is not resentful. Love takes no
pleasure in other people's sins, but delights in the truth; it is always ready
to excuse, to trust, to hope, and to endure whatever comes. Love does not come
to an end. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8
The Lord answered me, My
daughter, love has brought Me here, and love keeps Me here. My daughter, if you
knew what great merit and reward is earned by one act of pure love for Me, you
would die of joy. I am saying this that you may constantly unite yourself with
Me through love, for this is the goal of the life of your soul. (...) Faustina
Kowalska, The Diary, 576.
I wish that all your life
be love, only love. Everything that you do, do it with love. In every little
thing see Jesus and His example. You also do as Jesus did. He died out of love
for you. You also offer all you do with love to God, even the smallest little
things of everyday life. Our Lady of Medjugorie, November 30, 1988. Words from
Heaven, P.330.
And God has given me to
understand that there is but one thing that is of infinite value in His eyes,
and that is love of God; love, love and once again love; and nothing can
compare with a single act of pure love of God. Oh, with what inconceivable favors
God gifts a soul that loves Him sincerely! (...) Faustina Kowalska, The Diary,
778.
Without Love's jewel
inside me,
let the bazaar of my existence be destroyed stone by stone.
O Love, You have been called by a thousand names,
You who know how to pour wine
into the chalice of the body,
You who give culture to a thousand cultures,
You who are faceless but have a thousand faces (...)
give me a glass from Your bottle, (...).
Rumi, quoted in: Helminski,
Kabir (2000). The Rumi Collection. P.XXI.
Love alone harmoniously
joins all created things to God and with each other. St. Thalassios the Libyan
(VI-VII Century C.E.), quoted in: (1981). The Philokalia. Vol. II., P.307.
When we have reached love,
we have reached God and our way is ended. We have passed over to the island
that lies beyond the world where is the Father with the Son and the Holy
Spirit. Isaac the Syrian, quoted in: Pennington, Basil. (1978). O Holy
Mountain! Journal of a Retreat on Mount Athos. P.80.
Love is the head, root,
source, and mother of all good; without it everything else brings no benefit.
It is the sign of the Lord's pupils, a distinguishing characteristic of God's
servants, a sign of the Apostles. Saint John Climacus, quoted in: Pennington,
Basil. (1978). O Holy Mountain! Journal of a Retreat on Mount Athos. P.132.
Love is the perfect stillness and the greatest excitement, and most profound
act, and the word almost as complete as His name. Rabia (c.717-801), quoted in: Ladinsky Daniel
(2002). Love Poems from God. Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West. P.5.
Last modified: 2020/04/11