from our Lay Leader
Paul tells us, “Live a life of love.” (Ephesians 5:2) An embellishment of that instruction is “Live an ordinary life with extraordinary love.” That extraordinary love has only one true source: God, the Father of Love. To live a life of extraordinary love, we must live our life in God.
Father Pedro Arrupe tells us, “Nothing is more practical than finding God, than falling in love in a quite absolute, final way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you do with your evenings, how you spend your weekends, what you read, whom you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in love, stay in love, and it will decide everything.”
John O’Donohue wrote, “When you love, you open your life to an Other.” When you love God, you let Him become not part of your life but your full life. Your soul becomes twinned with God’s soul.
Remember the commandment that Jesus said was the most important. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37). In his own life, Jesus showed us how to live completely in the power and presence of the transforming and redeeming life of God. God sent His Son into the world to show us this Perfect Example.
All of our religion is worthless unless we love God in this absolute and complete way, because our love of God decides everything about who we are and how we live.