How To Love God On This 19th Sunday after Pentecost
Father Willie Doyle will tells us how to love God on this 19th Sunday after Pentecost.
Of course, we all should have (or soon will) express our love today or on any given Sunday by attending Holy Mass. Our Lord will be expressing His Love for us in a manner that surpasses all expressions of love. He will be offered in Sacrifice to His Father, as He has been countless times since that first Good Friday.
Of course, the Sacrifice of the Mass is not a bloody one, as was the case when He was first crucified. But His Love for us is infinite, and could be contained only in the Crucifixion. According to His instruction to the Apostles the day before He died, at the Last Supper, they were to continue to offer Him up to the Father: "Do this in remembrance of me."
The ultimate expression of His Love would thus be repeated for as long as the world exists.
But Father Willie takes us deeper into how we can and should express our love for God. Just as Our Lord held nothing back, so to should we holds nothing back.
As we peruse the details of how we must love God, mark Father Willie's advice, each detail of it. Allow it to penetrate our minds and hearts. Allow it to reside in our souls, there to guide us, with the Light of the Holy Spirit, this day and every day.
We must love God with our whole heart. Can He be loved otherwise? Is it too much that a finite heart should love infinite Beauty? I fail in this wholehearted love if I keep back anything from Him, if I am determined not to pass certain limits as proof of my love, if I absolutely refuse to sacrifice certain things which He asks, if I refuse to follow the grace which is impelling me on. It is not necessary to imagine extraordinary circumstances in the future; there is presumption in this; we must not count on ourselves as St. Peter did. Also there is a danger of despondency in such imaginings, when we do not feel capable of such tests of love. Examine the present.
We must love God with our whole strength. If I love God with all the strength that grace gives me now, this grace is increased by each act of love, so that I should from day to day love Him more. Love for a creature is strongest at its commencement, it becomes weaker, it ends in weariness and disgust. It is quite the contrary with divine love. Weak in the beginning, it grows as we come to know God better, as we taste Him more, as we approach Him more familiarly and enjoy His presence more intimately.
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