Magna res amor. Love is a great thing. Am I convinced of it? What esteem have I for this most sublime of virtues? What knowledge of the attentions that it supposes? What zeal for the manifestations love demands?
"O charity," a doctor used to say, "if I knew your value, I would give any price to have you."
But I am far from possessing a like enthusiasm, a like appreciation, and yet, I pride myself on my good judgment!
To love, as far as I am concerned, is such a little thing and it receives so little of my attention.
In order to reveal to one of His favorite servants what His love for her was in comparison with hers for Him, Our Lord plunged Angela of Foligno into a distress beyond description. She had such a realization of the nothingness of her own love in contrast with that of her Savior that she no longer wished to live. Her suffering was a true crucifixion.
Lord, let me understand, not in a manner that is beyond me, but by faith, how great a thing love is in You, and what a great thing love ought also to be in me. Grant that I may not always offer You such a thimble-like capacity for loving. I wish so much to love You. You know it. And then again - I do not wish it.
"Confidence, my daughter, to wish to love is to love. To complain loyally of one's little love is to have begun to understand what a great thing love is."
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Adapted from Meditations for Religious
by Father Raoul Plus, S.J. (© 1939, Frederick Pustet Co.)
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