Jesus gives us the guidelines on how to incorporate love into our lives. All four Gospels have His words about love. Mark 12:30-31 is typical, where Jesus says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.”
In this Biblical quotation, we see that Jesus is revealing to us that we must have a total commitment of love towards God – a love which dominates our emotions, and directs our thoughts and actions. Yes, it is love of God first, and love of man second. Man is made in the image of God ,who is LOVE, and for that reason, man is lovable. So we could say that the only way that we prove to God that we love Him is by showing that we love man, His creation. Every person the Lord place sin our path, love them with an unselfish, unconditional love. When we don’t love, our day is wasted.
Jesus also gives us the Golden Rule which says ‘do to others as you would have them do to you’. This is the very essence of our Christian conduct to actively do good things for others. When we behave in this manner, we are imitating God because that is the way He acts. He is kind to the person who brings Him joy and equally kind to the person who grieves His heart. God’s love embraces saints and sinners alike. It is His love that we must copy. If we, like God, seek our enemy’s highest good, we will truly be children of God.
The greatest form of love is charity. When we see a sister or brother in need, we help them, not only because it’s the right thing to do, but because Jesus is the one directing us. His Sermon on the Mount clearly tells us how to treat those in need. To say we follow Jesus, we can’t turn our back on those in need. Jesus didn’t. He helped everyone during His three-year ministry on earth, and continues helping us from Heaven through the Holy Spirit.
Prayer: Out of love for you, Jesus, I will empty myself of selfishness and do my best to accept my role as your servant to love and serve others, following in your footsteps. If I fall down due to my weakness, I will get up and try again, believing that you will give me the strength I need to fulfill Your will. Help me to be understanding, kind, gentle and patient to all people, including the sick, the homebound, the homeless, the hungry, the poor, the imprisoned, the hospitalized, the forgotten, the abused and neglected, the elderly, the blind and the disabled. Amen.
Michael Springer wrote, “To truly understand and be able to share love takes the sacrifice of one’s self. It’s realizing that love isn’t about you or what you can get. It’s about you and what you have to give.” And in a quote from Spencer W. Kimball, “As we GIVE, we find that sacrifice brings forth the BLESSINGS of heaven; and in the end, we learn it was no sacrifice at all.”
The longest journey that we make in life is from our head to our heart. Many people do not complete that journey, and some do not even under take it. It is one goal to reach the end of the journey, and it is another to remain mostly in our heart during it. It is from our heart that we let Christ’s love shine through us toward everyone we meet on our journey home. It’s in our hearts that we meet Jesus; it’s where we love Him, honor Him and let Him take possession of our life. It is where we are given the grace to place our complete trust in Him and to follow Him wherever He leads us. He showed us how to live our life by His example while He was on earth. He showed His unconditional love towards everyone He met, and we are called to follow His example. As Christians, we are gifted with a beautiful spiritual life, which can help us grow closer to Him every day if we choose. It doesn’t just come natural – we have to work on the relationship under His guidance.
When we stop and reflect on our entire life, we see the many twists, turns, hurdles and ditches that we have encountered. But despite any difficulties we met, we continued on, growing in wisdom, strength, courage and perseverance, qualities we needed to endure on our journey. However, the most significant part of our trek has been God walking with us, guiding us and protecting us from the evil lurking in our path. He is continually demonstrating His love for us and all His children.
In John 13:34, Jesus is telling us to love one another as He loves us. The greatest gift of LOVE that each of us will ever experience in this life is His dying on the Cross for every sin we will ever commit. On the Cross, Jesus looked past the cruel acts of His persecutors, and showed His love for them by asking the Father to forgive them, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.” [Luke 23:34]
No one on this earth can give us such a gift of love. When we truly understand that incredible gift, our inclination should be to return that love to Jesus throughout our day from the depths of our hearts in thoughts and praise. Even though we won’t be able to love Him as much as He loves us, we can ask Him to help us love Him more ever day of the rest of our life. It’ll only be when we are in the Kingdom with Him will we be able to give Him the totally focused love that He deserves.
So what do we do now to please Him? We can start right now by becoming a love bucket that never empties, showering love in abundance towards every one we meet wherever we travel. In 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, we can see what’s in the love bucket:
“Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, [love] is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” .
Like Jesus’ example on the Cross, we are called to look past people’s actions and still show them love, the more the better. This means we will have to stop judging people for whatever reason that pops into our mind and see them as Jesus sees them with love. Jesus is counting on us to be His heart out in the world, so that everyone we meet can see His love for them through us.
That thought triggers the refrain in the song, They’ll Know We Are Christians: And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love, Yes they’ll know we are Christians by our love.
I like what St. Dominic once said, “grains bears fruit if sown, but if stored, it rots.” Love can be similar to that. If shared widely it does much good in the world, but if kept only in our heart, then the outside world never sees, or benefits from, our love.
If we harbor any unforgiving feelings and thoughts toward anyone, let’s drown them out with love from our love bucket, forgiving them as Jesus wants us to do. We know we have finally forgiven people when we can say good things about them, wish good in their lives, and maybe even pray for them. If we struggle with giving love, then we can sincerely ask God to help us grow in love, which, more than likely, will happen over time because we are open to change.
Walking around spreading love from our love bucket could be a game changer in our own life, meaning that we might be surprised at the special people that such love could attract, by the gift of God, to our life.
LET’S SHOW LOVE IN THE WORLD, AND BY OUR EFFORTS MAKE IT A BETTER PLACE!
When we don’t forgive, we are telling Our Father that He shouldn’t have created that person, and even worse, that the person doesn’t deserve to be redeemed. By not forgiving, we break our love bond with God, who is all Love.If we truly love someone, we wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize their soul.
Through all our achievements in life, big or small, still stand next to God. When we don’t have much time to pray, just do what we can with a humble, loving heart, and God is pleased with our sincere efforts.
True happiness comes from a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and how wonderful to share that relationship with a soulmate picked by God.
To follow Jesus means to leave behind anyone or anything that causes us to separate ourselves from Him.
We become like that which we gaze upon. If we gaze upon holy things, then we become holy.
The unholy trinity: me, myself and I. We are rich because we have God. Pray for those who are poor with their materialism. We are kings and queens, princes and princesses, inheritors of the Kingdom – we are His children. He loves us unconditionally because He wonderfully and lovingly created us in His image.
In order to be happy, be satisfied and grateful for what we have, for the love we receive, for all that God has given us, and follow the these simple rules: (1) Free our hearts from hatred, (2) Free our minds from worries, (3) Live simply, (4) Give more, (5) Expect less.
If we read the Bible for 15 minutes every night and make an Act of Contrition before we go to bed, our venial sins of the day are forgiven.
In the end we will be judged by the depth of our love, which is service to God and neighbor, and the acts of kindness that we do for others will greatly benefit us at our judgment.
People will forget what we said. People will forget what we did. But people will never forget how we made them feel.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. – Edmund Burke
God is faithful, and He doesn’t keep us from hardships during our life, but He’ll take us through them.
Though Christian love will win every situation, prayer will have dominant influence, for prayer literally gives God legal entry into any situation.
In God we trust and with Him in our life, we have no fear. No one can separate us from Him. They can take our bodies, but no tour intellect and will to remain close to Him.
We are more than ... our past, our financial situation, our job, our personality, our triumphs, our failures … we are children of God.
When God provides us the opportunities, do not be afraid to speak the truth when the Holy Spirits call us to. We stand up for God in every circumstance.
What pleases Jesus is when we allow Him to: speak through us, act through us, and love through us.
Seek not our fortune here on earth, but set our sights on heaven !
I shall pass this way but once. Therefore, any good that I can do or any kindness that I can show, let me do it now, for I shall not pass this way again.
“There is no sin committed by another that I am not capable of committing. And it’s only by the grace of God that I have been protected against committing that sin.” – St. Augustine
“The less we have here, the greater will be our joy in Heaven, where our dwelling shall correspond to the love with which we imitated the life of poverty of our Divine Master here on earth.” - St. Teresa of Avila
“Love the poor and your life will be filled with sunlight and you will not be frightened at the hour of death.” – St. Vincent de Paul
“What matters in life, is not great deeds, but great love.” –St. Therese of Lisieux
“It is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing; it is not how much we give, but how much love we put in the giving.” –Mother Teresa“
Love one another, and you will have fulfilled all that is expected of you.” – St. John the Evangelist
“Few souls understand what God would accomplish in them if they were to abandon themselves unreservedly to Him and if they were to allow His grace to mold them accordingly.” – St. Ignatius Loyola [Note: This quote if telling us to surrender ALL to the Lord and hold nothing back, which corresponds to complete trust in the will of God for our lives.]
Gratitude is a virtue that makes us aware of the gifts we receive every day and the generosity of the givers. So gratitude consists of recognizing the favors or blessings we have received during our life from God, the Blessed Mother, family, friends and even strangers. Looking back, looking present and maybe even taking a little peek into the future, we come to realize that everything in our life is a blessing orchestrated by God. He has been showering His blessings on us our entire life, even when we didn’t recognize them. At this time it would be good if we spent a little time reflecting on our entire life, going back as far as we can remember. When looking back, I’m grateful for the fond memories of experiences I’ve had, and I’m so thankful that I can still remember them today. Here are a few of my own special memories:
· All the unique learning experiences from my Uncle Joe, who was the kind father-figure in my life.
· When visiting my Italian grandmother, I remember the wonderful smell in her house of the pasta sauce that she started every morning.· Visiting my bestfriend in high school and joining his family to pray the Rosary.· The many newfriends that I interacted with as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ecuador.
· Being in the delivery room during the birth of one of my children.
· The real feeling of love from the Blessed Mother, which she poured into my heart twice, once in Medjugorje and while visiting her Holy Land home, now located in Loretto, Italy.
Now take the time to recall some of your own special memories . . .Continuing on with this topic, we can think about all the wonderful people that God has placed in our life (family, friends, classmates, fellow workers, mentors, and so many others), some for a short time, some for a lifetime, and most for the times in-between. We can visualize the many special blessings and miracles that He has given us along our journey. They have all been gifts from God!
It will greatly benefit us to develop an attitude of gratitude because it will serve us well throughout our life. It will help us to be thankful for everything, no matter how big or how small. For example, we are extremely thankful each day for the gift of another day of life when we awaken in the morning; we thank Jesus for giving us the opportunity to have our sins forgiven through the Sacrament of Confession; we enjoy the sound of a cricket by our front door.
We are thankful for our everyday experiences: the sunshine and the rain, the rainbow we see, a glorious sunrise, the love expressed within our family, true friends, the flock of mallards flying overhead, safe travels, a parking space in a crowded parking area, our health and our talents from God, being forgiven by family or friend, receiving the grace to accept a heavy cross in our life that we are carrying to allow the Lord to do some good out in the world. Think also about all those people who serve us that we can be grateful for – the cafeteria worker that fixes us breakfast before work, the gas station attendant who sells us our gasoline, the checker and bagger at the super market, the greeter at church, the teller at the credit union, the clerk at the post office, the soldiers protecting our freedom, and the many others. So everything, and everyone, that touches our life in any way is gift from God, and our life should be a continual act of thanking Him and them. Thank Him with all our heart!
It is so important to teach our children to have this attitude of gratitude in their own lives because we know it will serve them well. Children learn by what they experience, and it all begins at home. By always smiling and saying “thank you, ”even for the smallest things, we foster an attitude of gratitude among our children. Some examples of how we can teach them about gratitude and generosity:
· Be thankful for what people do for us with a thank you note or maybe a small gift.
· Let the children hear us thank God each morning for the gift of another day of life.
· Saya small prayer of thanksgiving before and after meals.
· Pray with our children at night, thanking God for all the gifts received that day.
· Pray with our children for the needs of others - for the sick, for those without food and shelter, for those seeking jobs, etc. (Let the children think of some others.)
· Volunteer as a family at a local soup kitchen.
· Donate food and clothing to local food banks and charities for the needy.
· Get the family involved in selecting charities to donate to.
· Place a sharing box in a corner somewhere in the house so our children can place the toys they want to share with needy children.
· Take the children out into nature to experience the beauty of God’s Creation.
However, the greatest gift that He will ever give us, meaning all mankind, is Jesus coming to earth to die on the Cross for every sin we will commit during our life. A lifetime of thanking Him for this stupendous gift would greatly please Jesus, but there is more to the story. Jesus came to earth to give us a roadmap to find our way to our true home, Heaven. We thank Him every day for that gift because without it we would likely be lost, following the ways of the world to destruction for ourselves. LET’SKEEP OUR EYES FIXED ON JESUS FROM THIS MOMENT ON!
I pray that whoever opens this book will be deeply touched by the Holy Spirit in the most profound way and that their life will be changed according to His will.