NOTES ON LOVE (VOL. I)

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“REAL LOVE IS

DEMANDING.

I WOULD FAIL

IN MY MISSION

IF I DID NOT

TELL YOU SO.”

Saint John Paul II

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Just a few notes about love. 

I. love is all gift.  you can give + give + give, and be completely + utterly exhausted by your sacrifice.  keep giving, because even though it's so much sacrifice, that sacrifice is so worth it.  it’s the only thing in this life that’s worth anything.  so be that giver - be a giver of love, strength, truth, laughter, and good vibes.  (also on those lines – never, ever, ever regret any true gift of yourself to anyone.  EVER.)

II.  that old saying that it’s better to have loved and have lost then to have never loved at all – is it, though, is it really?  as Lewis said, to love is to be vulnerable to loss, and if you chose not to reveal the vulnerability of your heart, you chose not to love, and you wrap your love in a shroud and place it in a casket.  casket = death.  so love.  love, even though you know that you will one day lose the beloved.  but then, you never truly lose the beloved forever, because all good loves in this world are but shadows of the pure love that awaits us all in heaven, that love between you and the beloved and Christ that is freely unsullied by the stain of sin. so you don’t love and say your goodbye as if you lost forever.  you love, and you say “see you later”.  

III. "do not accept anything as love which lacks truth, and do not accept anything as truth which lacks love." - saint edith stein 

IV.  the best love is the one that can daily make you into a better person without changing one ounce of who you truly are, the love that can complete you and remind you who you were meant to be.  so I guess that means that the best love is the love of Christ.  no other loves can do this as wholly and as beautifully as the purifying love of God.  

V.  God's three answers to your prayers are 1) yes, 2) not yet, and 3) I have something far better. ♥