XXX — LIFE OF LOVE

Presence of God. — Grant, O Lord, that already here below I may begin to love You as I shall one day love You in heaven.

Meditation

1 — If one can say that through faith “eternal life begins in us” (cf. II-II, q. 4, a. 1), the same can be affirmed, and with greater reason, of charity, which will remain unchanged even in heaven. Eternal life will be essentially a life of love, and of love blossomed in its fullest perfection, since, knowing God perfectly through the beatific vision, we shall finally be able to fulfill with absolute perfection the precept of loving God with all our strength. On this earth such perfection is possible only in a relative way; nevertheless, already now we possess the same charity with which we shall one day love in heaven, and therefore already now we can begin that life of love which will flower fully in eternity.

Our love in heaven will have the characteristics of full vigor and absolute continuity, so that it can never fail. Here on earth we cannot attain so much, yet we can tend to it through the exercise of a pure and intense love, and as much as possible always in act. Here, then, are the qualities your love for God must have: purity, intensity, continuity.

Your love for God will be pure when you will Him such good that you seek only his glory and the fulfillment of his will: “hallowed be your name, your will be done” (Mt. 6:9-10). This is the one true good that you, poor creature, can will for your God. All the glory you can give Him lies in saying a complete yes to his holy will, in carrying out his will here on earth with so much love and fullness as to vie with the angels and blessed in heaven: “your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (ibid.). Here is the sense in which your love must be pure: seeking only God’s glory, only his will, forgetting yourself completely, ready to sacrifice for Him any desire, wish, or personal interest of your own.

Therefore, even in your spiritual life your first thought must be not your peace, your progress, your comfort, but always God’s delight, his good pleasure, his glory. And in precisely this way you will find your greatest advantage, because the one who gives himself to God, completely forgetting himself, draws upon himself the fullness of divine love; and what greater good can come to you than to be loved by infinite Love?

2 — Then too, your love for God must be intense and vigorous, because thus the inclination of your will toward Him will be ever stronger. “Amor meus pondus meum,” says St. Augustine: love is my weight, the weight that draws me, that draws my whole being, all my willing, all my life into God. And this weight must increase so that it may draw you into God with ever greater speed. St. John of the Cross teaches that one degree of love is enough for the soul to be in its center, which is God; but the more degrees of love it possesses, the more it is centered and plunged in Him, and therefore “the stronger love will be the more unitive” (Living Flame 1, 13).

Love is strengthened and grows through exercise; but this must be a generous and intense exercise, employing all the soul’s powers. When you carry out your actions not with pettiness or negligence, but with all ardor, that is, with all the good will of which you are capable, then your love grows immediately, and each act corresponds to a new increase of charity. In this way your love will always grow more, become strong and mature, capable of drawing you wholly into God. See, then, that in your day these acts of love are as frequent as possible, so as to live as much as possible in continuous actuality of love. But there is one moment of the day meant in a wholly particular way to rekindle you in charity, and that is the time of prayer. Prayer understood as the intimate meeting of your soul with God through love; prayer understood as a relationship of friendship between you and God. There you must recollect and concentrate yourself; there you must renew your will’s decision to give yourself entirely to God, to seek always his will and his delight above all things. Go to prayer to seek God, to be with Him as friend with friend, and ask Him, humbly but with gentle insistence, to teach you to love Him as you will one day love Him in heaven. As human friendship is strengthened in the meetings of friends, so divine friendship — charity — is strengthened in prayer, in this friendly and loving meeting of the soul with God.

Colloquy

“O Lord, You make me understand that all the most perfect gifts are nothing without love, that charity is the best way to reach You surely. Therefore I desire nothing but the science of love; and even having given my riches for it, it seems to me that I have given nothing. I understand so well that only love is capable of making me pleasing to You, that it is the only treasure I desire.

“My occupation is to gather flowers, the flowers of love and sacrifice, and to offer them to You, my God, to please You. I want only to work for your love, with the sole end of pleasing You and consoling your Most Sacred Heart, and of saving souls that will love You for eternity” (cf. T.B.G. St. 11; Offerta).

“O Lord, my love for You must be total, infinite in desire, because You do not give Yourself wholly to the soul if the soul does not give itself wholly to You. I must keep no attachment, admit not even one adverted imperfection, refuse You nothing. Grant that I may give myself to You in a continual, uninterrupted self-giving, moment by moment, seeking in all things your greater glory; always striving to please You, willing only and always your will, doing every thing with all my heart, with all my love.

“My love for You must be gentle, delicate. Help me to attain those refinements, those nuances, those details that You so prize and that enrapture You.

“My love for You must be strong, generous, and resolute; showing itself in sacrifice, in the seeking of sacrifice, in offering, in the smiling acceptance of suffering. O Lord, for love of You I want to train myself in the small occasions so as to be strong in the great ones” (cf. Sr. Carmela d. Spirito S. c. s.).