(no subject)
Why, yes, I *have* been negligent in updating my LJ. lol.
My sister has come down to live with my family in Kentucky, at least for a while. Other than that, not much happening...
I did recently read a book that I enjoyed greatly. Dion: The Wanderer Talks Truth, written by Dion DiMucci (and helped by Mike Aquilina). It gives his own story of coming to faith in Christ (and a return to his Catholic roots). One passage I particularly loved in the book, that I wished to share. (There were many others as well, but..).
This one is about the nature of love, that I thought was awesome:
That's what earthly loves are built to do. They prepare us for God's love. They prepare us for the God who is Love. Sometimes they do it by making us wait for a long time; they stretch our hearts and increase our capacity to give and receive. Sometimes they do it by breaking our hearts, so God can give us a new one.
Love is not just the stuff of daydreams and sighing. It's going back to school.
And we learn along the way that love is all about sacrifice- sacrificing myself for sake of the one I love. Love is a school of sacrifice, where we learn how to be like Jesus, because sacrifice is the essence of his life. He gave himself up for the one he loved, and that one is you. That one is me.
Go read the Letter to the Hebrews. Jesus is the great high priest of the new covenant, and he offers everything he's got to God the Father. He's a priest, and so he offers a sacrifice.
That's love. Our dreams of love draw us out of ourselves, first maybe when we're teenagers as we see a lovely person like Gina Lollobrigida on the silver screen. We dream of a date, but it's still a dream of getting, and the object remains an object, like a Martin guitar, only better.
But love insists on schooling us, if we'll let it. Through marriage and parenting and even deep friendship, we grow until that lower-case love goes capital on us. Sometimes it happens slowly, with progress you hardly notice. Sometimes it happens suddenly, because of some great shock, or some great joy, or even the sudden intervention of Jesus in your life. (I've had my share of all three.)
We learn to offer ourselves for the sake of someone else, just as Jesus did. Maybe it seems at first that it's not going to be pleasant. We don't want to give. We want to get something out of love. But we learn over time that sacrifice is the only way to happiness.
My sister has come down to live with my family in Kentucky, at least for a while. Other than that, not much happening...
I did recently read a book that I enjoyed greatly. Dion: The Wanderer Talks Truth, written by Dion DiMucci (and helped by Mike Aquilina). It gives his own story of coming to faith in Christ (and a return to his Catholic roots). One passage I particularly loved in the book, that I wished to share. (There were many others as well, but..).
This one is about the nature of love, that I thought was awesome:
That's what earthly loves are built to do. They prepare us for God's love. They prepare us for the God who is Love. Sometimes they do it by making us wait for a long time; they stretch our hearts and increase our capacity to give and receive. Sometimes they do it by breaking our hearts, so God can give us a new one.
Love is not just the stuff of daydreams and sighing. It's going back to school.
And we learn along the way that love is all about sacrifice- sacrificing myself for sake of the one I love. Love is a school of sacrifice, where we learn how to be like Jesus, because sacrifice is the essence of his life. He gave himself up for the one he loved, and that one is you. That one is me.
Go read the Letter to the Hebrews. Jesus is the great high priest of the new covenant, and he offers everything he's got to God the Father. He's a priest, and so he offers a sacrifice.
That's love. Our dreams of love draw us out of ourselves, first maybe when we're teenagers as we see a lovely person like Gina Lollobrigida on the silver screen. We dream of a date, but it's still a dream of getting, and the object remains an object, like a Martin guitar, only better.
But love insists on schooling us, if we'll let it. Through marriage and parenting and even deep friendship, we grow until that lower-case love goes capital on us. Sometimes it happens slowly, with progress you hardly notice. Sometimes it happens suddenly, because of some great shock, or some great joy, or even the sudden intervention of Jesus in your life. (I've had my share of all three.)
We learn to offer ourselves for the sake of someone else, just as Jesus did. Maybe it seems at first that it's not going to be pleasant. We don't want to give. We want to get something out of love. But we learn over time that sacrifice is the only way to happiness.