LOVE
With Valentine’s Day commercialization everywhere, I suppose “Love” is in the air. May we all enjoy chocolates, flowers, perhaps a special meal to celebrate with our beloved.
But these days I wonder where is the love?
· Former Presiding Bishop Michael Curry always reminded us:
o “If it’s not about love, it’s not about God.”
· Jesus echoes the Old Covenant when he proclaimed the greatest commandment:
o “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” (Rite I)
· Jesus adds a New Commandment:
o “Love others as I have loved you.”
So where is this love?
Thanks be to God, this true Christian love shines at St. James as we care for one another. There are glimpses of God’s compassion as we serve with others in our communities.
But at this fragile moment of conflict and division in our nation and in our world, this selfless love, this agape seems less visible.
I recently listened to sermon which lamented that even the words of Jesus’ Beatitudes might be open to criticism.
Deepening our relationship with God through the power of the Holy Spirit- through prayer, through study, through community - equips us to navigate the uncertain waters of life.
For me, in addition to my regular individual rule of life of prayer, study, service, and healthy lifestyle, I also participate in a Centering Prayer Group and attend an intergenerational Compline worship.
During Compline, we offer intercessory prayers. One young man always adds this prayer: “For those who are hard to love.”
This prayer from Prayers for the Pilgrimage (p.164) speaks to that challenge:
For Loving Your Neighbor when You Don’t Feel Like Loving Them
O Lord, you who are the True Neighbor, increase in me this day, I pray, a spirit of neighborliness and may I take joy afresh in the denial of self, so that I might bear witness to a watching world of the self-sacrificial love of Jesus. I pray this in the name of Jesus, the One who meets me in the face of my neighbor. Amen.
The Apostle Paul reminds us that love is patient and kind. Love never fails:
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. (I Corinthians 13:4-8)
As we deepen our relationship with God through the power of the Holy Spirit settling into our souls, may we ever shine the light and love of Christ to do our small part to heal our fractured world.
For Love
O Lord, you whose love is unfailing, flood my heart with your love, I pray, and where my heart may be empty or hard, help me to feel afresh my belovedness this day, so that I may be freed to love you and my neighbor with the fearless love of God and thereby fulfill the greatest of all commandments. I pray this in the name of Jesus, the One who has loved me to the end. Amen. (Prayers for the Pilgrimage, p. 92)
With love and prayers,
Judy Q+
