Tag: thenewcommandment

Posted in DOCTORS of the Church, LOVE of NEIGHBOUR, ONE Minute REFLECTION, QUOTES on CHARITY, QUOTES on LOVE, QUOTES on LOVE of GOD, The WORD

One Minute Reflection – 9 September – ‘… And it isn’t enough to love, we must prove it.’

Posted on by AnaStpaul

One Minute Reflection – 9 September – “Month of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary ” – Readings: Colossians 3: 12-17; Psalm 150: 1b-2-6
Luke 6:27-38

“If you love those who love you, what reward will you have? For even sinners love those who love them.” – Luke 6:33

REFLECTION – “You have heard that it was said: You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy. But I say this to you: Love your enemies, … pray for those who persecute you” (Mt 5:43-44). No doubt, we don’t have any enemies in Carmel but there are feelings. One feels attracted to this Sister, whereas with regard to another, one would make a long detour in order to avoid meeting her. And so, without even knowing it, she becomes the subject of persecution. Well, Jesus is telling me that it is this Sister who must be loved, she must be prayed for, even though her conduct would lead me to believe that she doesn’t love me: “If you love those who love you, what reward will you have? For even sinners love those who love them.”

And it isn’t enough to love, we must prove it. We are naturally happy to offer a gift to a friend; we love especially to give surprises, however;,this is not charity, for sinners do this too. Here is what Jesus teaches me also: “Give to everyone who asks of you and from him who takes away your goods, ask no return.” Giving to all those who ask is less sweet than offering oneself by the movement of one’s own heart. … Although it is difficult to give to one who asks, it is even more so, to allow one to take what belongs to you, without asking it back! O Mother, I say it is difficult, I should have said that this seems difficult, for the yoke of the Lord is sweet and light (Mt 11:30). When one accepts it, one feels its sweetness immediately and cries out with the Psalmist: “I have run the way of your commandments when you enlarged my heart.” (Ps 119[118],32) It is only charity that can expand my heart. O Jesus, since this sweet flame consumes it, I run with joy in the way of Your new commandment (Jn 13:34).” – St Thérèse of the Child Jesus (1873-1897) Carmelite, Doctor of the Church – Autobiographical Manuscript C, 15v° – 16r°

PRAYER – Almighty Lord and God, protect us by Your power and love throughout this day, even as You have enabled us, in Your love to begin it. Do not let us turn aside to any sin but let our every thought, word and deed be done in love for You and Your creatures, our neighbour. Teach us to love as You have loved us and may our Sorrowful and Holy Mother, show us the way. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Who loved us to the end, with the Holy Spiriti, God now and for all eternity, amen.

Posted in DOCTORS of the Church, FATHERS of the Church, GOD is LOVE, QUOTES on LOVE, The WORD

Thought for the Day – 19 May – The New Commandment

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Thought for the Day – 19 May – The Fifth Sunday of Easter, C

The New Commandment

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another…. John 13:34a new commandment I give to you - john 13 34 - 19 may 2019.jpg

Saint Augustine (354-430)
Bishop and Great Western Father of the Church

An excerpt from his Tractates on the Gospel of John, 65.

A new commandment I give you, that you love one another.   This commandment that He is giving them is a new one, the Lord Jesus tells His disciples.   Yet was it not contained in the Old Law, where it is written – you shall love your neighbour as yourself?   Why does the Lord call it new when it is clearly so old?   Or is the commandment new because it divests us of our former selves and clothes us with the new man?   Love does indeed renew the man who hears, or rather obeys its command but, only that love which Jesus distinguished from a natural love, by the qualification – As I have loved you.

This is the kind of love that renews us.   When we love as He loved us, we become new men, heirs of the new covenant and singers of the new song.   My brothers, this was the love that even in bygone days renewed the holy men, the patriarchs and prophets of old. In later times it renewed the blessed apostles and now it is the turn of the Gentiles.  From the entire human race throughout the world this love gathers together into one body a new people, to be the bride of God’s only Son.   She is the bride of whom it is asked in the Song of Songs:   Who is this who comes clothed in white?   White indeed are her garments, for she has been made new and the source of her renewal, is none other, than this new commandment.

And so all her members make each other’s welfare their common care.   When one member suffers, all the members suffer with him and if one member is glorified, all the rest rejoice.   They hear and obey the Lord’s words – a new commandment I give you, that you love one another, not as men love one another for their own selfish ends, nor merely on account of their common humanity but because they are all gods and sons of the Most High.   They love one another as God loves them, so that they may be brothers of His only Son.   He will lead them to the goal that alone will satisfy them, where all their desires will be fulfilled.   For when God is all in all, there will be nothing left to desire.

This love is the gift of the Lord who said – as I have loved you, you also must love one another.   His object in loving us, then, was to enable us to love each other.   By loving us Himself, our mighty head has linked us all together, as members of His own body, bound to one another by the tender bond of love.