"God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him” (1 Jn 4:16).

"If you see charity, you see the Trinity", wrote Saint Augustine.

"As a virtue, charity is that habit or power which disposes us to love God above all creatures for Himself, and to love ourselves and our neighbours for the sake of God. When this power or habit is directly infused into the soul by God, the virtue is supernatural; when it is acquired through repeated personal acts, it is natural. If, in the last sentence but one, for the words, "power or habit which disposes us to" we substitute the words, "act by which we", the definition will fit the act of charity. Such an act will be supernatural if it proceeds from the infused virtue of charity, and if its motive (God lovable because of His infinite perfections) is apprehended through revelation; if either of these conditions is wanting the act is only natural. Thus, when a person with the virtue of charity in his soul assists a needy neighbour on account of the words of Christ, "as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to me", or simply because his Christian training tells him that the one in need is a child of God, the act is one of supernatural charity. It is likewise meritorious of eternal life. The same act performed by one who had never heard of the Christian revelation, and from the same motive of love of God, would be one of natural charity. When charity towards the neighbour is based upon love of God, it belongs to the same virtue (natural or supernatural according to circumstances) as charity towards God."(Catholic Encyclopedia)

1 Corinthians 13

1 If I speak with the languages of men and of angels, but have not charity, I have become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal.

2 If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not charity, I am nothing.

3 If I dole out all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profits me nothing.

4 Charity is patient, charity is kind; charity doesn't envy, it doesn't brag, it is not proud,

5 Charity doesn't behave itself inappropriately, doesn't seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil;

6 Charity doesn't rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;

7 Charity bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Charity never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will be done away with. Where there are various languages, they will cease. Where there is knowledge, it will be done away with.

9 For now we know in part, and we prophesy in part;

10 but when that which is complete has come, then that which is partial will be done away with.

11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child. Now that I have become a man, I have put away childish things.

12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, even as I am fully known.

13 But now faith, hope, and charity remain-these three. The greatest of these is charity.

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"My command is this: "Love one another as I have loved you." (John 15:9-12) Jesus commands us to love our neighbor in the following scripture:

"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love one another as I have loved you."(John 15:9-12)

Pope Benedict XVI

"Love is indeed 'ecstasy', not in the sense of a moment of intoxication, but rather as a journey, an ongoing exodus out of the closed inward-looking self towards its liberation through self-giving, and thus towards authentic self-discovery and indeed the discovery of God: 'Whoever seeks to gain his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it' (Lk 17:33), as Jesus says throughout the Gospels (cf. Mt 10:39; 16:25; Mk 8:35; Lk 9:24; Jn 12:25). In these words, Jesus portrays his own path, which leads through the Cross to the Resurrection: the path of the grain of wheat that falls to the ground and dies, and in this way bears much fruit. Starting from the depths of his own sacrifice and of the love that reaches fulfilment therein, he also portrays in these words the essence of love and indeed of human life itself."(Encyclical 'Deus Caritas Est')

"We, like God, in whose image we are made, are persons who act to unite ourselves with an ever-widening circle of love. "For man is a potency, the last act of which is to unite itself to Being without limits through loved knowledge. This "unite itself" is like a conjugal act of the mind, And man spontaneously moves to unite himself to all beings and to the source of beings, loving them all and receiving love from them all."(Fr Antonio Rosmini)

"He gives of himself to all beings, and they give of themselves to him. He thus widens his own limits, bringing his restricted, deficient nature to completion. A tiny part of being, he enjoys not himself alone but all entities, and in the expanse of essential being finds and receives his own happiness, a moral happiness which he can no longer refuse, a good he cannot lose. Such is the end of human beings, the noblest end of "person," and hence, the end of human nature. This communication and mutual society of beings with the being of beings and between themselves is the end of the universe." For the Universe is nothing else than the field for the loving communion of being." (Ibid)

Jesus also said, in John 5:l9:

"Amen, amen, I say unto you, the Son cannot do any thing of himself, but what he seeth the Father doing: for what things soever he doth, these the Son also doth in like manner." Jesus Christ, the Son, is the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. He is telling us that He never acts alone, but that all the Divine Persons are involved in every Godly activity. When Jesus the Divine Person, walked on the earth in His Sacred Humanity, He was constantly recollected, or in the Presence of the Love of the Holy Trinity. All His actions took place in that context. We, as members of the Mystical Body of Christ, are to imitate Jesus, and to likewise perform our actions in the Presence of Divine Love. We imitate Him best when, like Him, we stay recollected in the Presence of the Trinity. This recollection, then, God's Supernatural Spirit, with which we freely cooperate, becomes the Primary Source and the Strength of our "Love for Neighbor."

Jesus tells us that we should have love for each other of the same perfect quality as the Father's Love for Him, and His love for us. This is "supernatural love" originating within the Abundant Life of the Persons of the Trinity. We are called to reciprocate this same "supernatural" charity He has infused into our "will" by loving God for His intrinsic Goodness,(for His own sake) with our whole heart soul, mind, and strength. This first commandment exercise takes place in its perfection in the ongoing acts of love we make to the Beloved in the Spiritual "Union" of our spirit and His Spirit brought about by contemplative prayer. Our spiritual union becomes the perfection of the First Commandment resulting in a state of acts of ongoing "Love" within the bond of Spiritual Marriage. It's our participation in the "supernatural" Ecstasy of Love between the Divine Persons within the Holy Trnity.

Secondarily, this perfect love of charity to which we are called flows from God, through us, back to God, "indirectly," as we love our neighbor, and our enemies "for God's sake." Again, its the same act of Love for God, but God found in our neighbor, actually or in potency. So without first participating in the Gift of the Love of God initiated by the Divine Infusion of Charity, our love of neighbor becomes just natural love influenced by the neighbor's natural attractiveness. For we love our neighbor, not in addition to our Love for God, but precisely "in" and "through" our Love for God. Freely we give as freely we have received. Charity flows from our supernatural recollection, wherein we give ourselves totally to God with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength. This gift of Love, through us, may then awaken love in the heart of our neighbor, and becomes a fire through which the Holy Spirit may return love to us and God through a new source, our neighbor.

With this recollective Triune Love in our hearts as our first priority, we may love our neighbor as Jesus loved us, and, like Him, we don't need to concern ourselves with results, or to get feedback as to whether, or how, our love is working. We don't measure our Charity by the size and number of our "good works." It is possible to fill the world with "works" for the wrong motive and to possess zero Charity. This is the modern disease called "activism." It results from lukewarm faith and pride in our own ability to "do great things for God." It falls under the category of natural selfishness inherited through Original Sin, rather than the category of supernatural Charity. True charity will be seen in the "quality" of our love, though it manifest itself in works that are small and seemingly insignificant. Whether in big things or in insignificant things, true charity will produce an ongoing succession of works that will be seen by God, but not necessarily by man. We remember there was more Charity in the gift of the "Widow's Mite" than in the expensive gifts given by others.

It's irrelevant whether the recipient of our charity is a sinner or a saint. God's love is available for both. Neither He, nor we, are in the "knowledge" business. We're in the "love" business. The love flowing from our recollection with God, with which we freely cooperate, calls upon us to just give this gift without asking questions as to the worthiness of the recipient. Then we open the divine floodgates so that the healing balm of God's mercy may flow, in, with, and through us, members of Christ, perhaps for the first time, flowing to this or that individual in our sphere of responsibility and influence, as Christ loves them through us. When we refuse to love our neighbor, we refuse to love God in our neighbor, and we refuse the very same love by which God would love us.

In order to love our neighbor as Christ loves us, we must see Christ, and love Christ, in him, no matter who he might be, and no matter how busy we think we are with our own important affairs. As our neighbor comes into view while we are busily walking along filled with our own business, even the business of God, we must realize that Christ is approaching. The Christ within us is calling us to love the Christ that is longing to live and love in our neighbor and ourselves, in our specific relationship. If our neighbor is spiritually dead, than Christ within us is longing to call out: "Lazarus come forth!"

But you say to yourself, "Oh no, here comes so and so, and I am busy with important business, I have no time to stop and babble with this person." "And anyway, you say to yourself, "I happen to know this person is living in sin." So, like the people with important business, the bishops, priests, and laymen who couldn't stop to help the man beaten and left to die by thieves, you give him a cold greeting, or pretend you didn't see him, while moving rapidly on, leaving him humiliated by the insult. For, after all, you are busy with God's affairs. And you have been called, personally, to present a sermon to a gathering of God-seeking souls, on the subject of "Love of Neighbor." And you certainly have no time to waste on small talk with this person, who you don't particularly like anyway. So off you go, full of yourself and your projects, hoping that your sermon on "Love of Neighbor" will really impress the assembled gathering. Why their applause is ringing in your ears already!

"Meanwhile, high on a hill far away, a cry of pain and rejection fills the air from one hanging on a Cross, humiliated and, once again, alone in sorrow, the one who gave you everything while you were yet in your sin, the one whom you failed to comfort when He reached out to you in His hour of need!" Remember, God's Spirit is ever seeking love from sinners, taxpayers, the unattractive, bothersome, and those rejected by society. For these are the little ones who are in need, and open to His love. And "inasmuch as you did it to the least of my brethren, you did it to Me!"

In Christian love, we are called to love "persons" on earth, just like the God who created earth does in the Eternal Trinity of "Persons." Does that mean that we stop and give a great deal of our time and attention in a loving manner to every person whom we contact during the day. The answer is in the negative. However, we must be kind and cordial, to the extent possible, to everyone we meet during the day. We must never be gruff and unkind because we are busy, or because the person is asking something which we are not able to give. It is always possible to say "No" without angrily "swatting a fly with a piledriver."

Within the context of maintaining our recollection with Him who has the right to all of our heart, we will regularly give our time and attention, and love, to the limited number of those neighbors connected with our marriage, our family, our vocation, our business, our work, and with whom we come in contact as a normal part of our vocational duties and responsibilities. These are "fields ripe for the harvest", and the people amongst whom God has placed us, and whom He expects us to love. And we do this, not because they are naturally attractive to us(for there will be times when they are unattractive), but because we love God. Even when they are naturally attractive to us, as with our spouse and children, we will love God in them, by thanking God for this natural gift of natural human love and companionship. And we shall not let that natural love prevent us from loving God more than any of His wonderful creatures or children, and personally pursuing a spiritual life as we fulfill all the Commandments of God.

The following are a few thoughts of St John of the Cross regarding ideal standards of behavior, which we may not always be able to achieve, but for which we, as laymen, should strive to achieve on the straight and direct way to perfection, and which help to maintain "recollection" when we are involved with activities conncected with "Love of Neighbor:"

JOHN OF THE CROSS, Sayings of Light and Love:

"Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest."[Mt. 11:28].

John provides good direction as to how the contemplative soul enters most fully into the rest of Christ:

"The soul that journeys to God, but does not shake off its cares and quiet its appetites, is like one who drags a cart uphill. It is not God's will that a soul be disturbed by anything or suffer trials, for if one suffers trials in the adversities of the world it is because of a weakness in virtue. The perfect soul rejoices in what afflicts the imperfect one. So abide in peace, banish cares, take no account of all that happens, and you will serve God according to his good pleasure, and rest in him.

"This way of life contains very little business and bustling, and demands mortification of the will more than knowledge. The less one takes of things and pleasures the farther one advances along this way. Think not that pleasing God lies so much in doing a great deal as in doing it with good will, without possessiveness and human respect.

"Reflect that the most delicate flower loses its fragrance and withers fastest; therefore guard yourself against seeking to walk in a spirit of delight, for you will not be constant. Choose rather for yourself a robust spirit, detached from everything, and you will discover abundant peace and sweetness, for delicious and durable fruit is gathered in a cold and dry climate.

"Bear in mind that your flesh is weak and that no worldly thing can comfort or strengthen your spirit, for what is born of the world is world and what is born of the flesh is flesh. The good spirit is born only of the Spirit of God, who communicates himself neither through the world nor through the flesh.

"If you purify your soul of attachments and desires, you will understand things spiritually. If you deny your appetite for them, you will enjoy their truth, understanding what is certain in them. Strive to be content with having nothing. Strive to be content with emptiness, emptiness of satisfaction in both natural and spiritual desire.

"Since God is (directly) inaccessible, be careful not to concern yourself with all that your faculties can comprehend and your senses feel, so that you do not become satisfied with less and lose the lightness of soul suitable for going to him.

"See that you do not interfere in the affairs of others, nor even allow them to pass through your memory; for perhaps you will be unable to accomplish your own task. Because the virtues you have in mind do not shine in your neighbor, do not think that your neighbor will not be precious in God's sight for reasons that you have not in mind. Do not be suspicious of your brother, for you will lose purity of heart. Wisdom enters through love, silence, and mortification. It is great wisdom to know how to be silent and to look at neither the remarks, nor the deeds, nor the lives of others. Ignoring the imperfections of others, preserving silence and a continual communion with God will eradicate great imperfections from the soul and make it the possessor of great virtues.

"Habitual voluntary imperfections that are never completely overcome not only hinder the divine union, but also the attainment of perfection. Such imperfections are: the habit of being very talkative; a small unconquered attachment, such as to a person, to clothing, to a cell, a book, or to the way food is prepared, and to other conversations and little satisfactions in tasting things, in knowing, and hearing, and the like. "Allow yourself to be taught, allow yourself to receive orders, allow yourself to be subjected and despised, and you will be perfect.

"The devil fears a soul united to God as he does God himself.

"The purest suffering produces the purest understanding.

"Bridle your tongue and your thoughts very much, direct your affection habitually toward God, and your spirit will be divinely enkindled. Feed not your spirit on anything but God. Cast off concern about things, and bear peace and recollection in your heart. Keep spiritually tranquil in a loving attentiveness to God, and when it is necessary to speak, let it be with the same calm and peace.

"The soul that has reached the union of love does not even experience the first motions of sin.

"Love to be unknown both by yourself and by others. Never look at the good or evil of others. Walk in solitude with God; act according to the just measure; hide the blessings of God. To lose always and let everyone else win is a trait of valiant souls, generous spirits, and unselfish hearts; it is their manner to give rather than receive even to the extent of giving themselves

"Preserve a habitual remembrance of eternal life, recalling that those who hold themselves the lowest and poorest and least of all will enjoy the highest dominion and glory in God. Rejoice habitually in God, who is your salvation and reflect that it is good to suffer in any way for him who is good.

"Preserve a loving attentiveness to God with no desire to feel or understand any particular thing concerning him.

"Be hostile to admitting into your soul things that of themselves have no spiritual substance, lest they make you lose your liking for devotion and recollection. Let Christ crucified be enough for you, and with him suffer and take your rest, and hence annihilate yourself in all inward and outward things. Endeavor always that things be not for you, nor you for them, but forgetful of all, abide in recollection with your Bridegroom.

"Have great love for trials and think of them as but a small way of pleasing your Bridegroom, who did not hesitate to die for you. Bear fortitude in your heart against all things that move you to that which is not God, and be a friend of the Passion of Christ. Be interiorly detached from all things and do not seek pleasure in any temporal thing, and your soul will concentrate on goods you do not know.

"See that you are not suddenly saddened by the adversities of this world, for you do not know the good they bring, being ordained in the judgments of God for the everlasting joy of the elect.

"In tribulation, immediately draw near to God with trust, and you will receive strength, enlightenment, and instruction.

"Take God for your bridegroom and friend, and walk with him continually; and you will not sin and will learn to love, and the things you must do will work out prosperously for you. You will without labor subject the nations and bring things to serve you if you forget them and yourself as well.

"Although you perform many works, if you do not deny your will and submit yourself, losing all solicitude about yourself and your affairs, you will not make progress.

"What does it profit you to give God one thing if he asks of you another? Consider what it is God wants, and then do it. You will as a result satisfy your heart better than with something toward which you yourself are inclined.

"If you desire that devotion be born in your spirit and that the love of God and the desire for divine things increase, cleanse your soul of every desire, attachment, and ambition in such a way that you have no concern about anything. Just as a sick person is immediately aware of good health once the bad humor has been thrown off and a desire to eat is felt, so will you recover your health, in God, if you cure yourself as was said. Without doing this, you will not advance no matter how much you do.

"If you desire to discover peace and consolation for your soul and to serve God truly, do not find your satisfaction in what you have left behind, because in that which now concerns you you may be as impeded as you were before, or even more. But leave as well all these other things and attend to one thing alone that brings all these with it (namely, holy solitude, together with prayer and spiritual and divine reading), and persevere there in forgetfulness of all things. For if these things are not incumbent on you, you will be more pleasing to God in knowing how to guard and perfect yourself than by gaining all other things together; what profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and suffer the loss of one's soul?

"The secret of one's conscience is considerably harmed and damaged as often as its fruits are manifested to others, for then one receives as reward the fruit of fleeting fame.

"Speak little and do not meddle in matters about which you are not asked.

"Never allow yourself to pour out your heart, even though it be but for the space of a Creed.

"Do not contradict; by no means speak words that are not pure. Let your speech be such that no one may be offended, and let it concern things that would not cause you regret were all to know of them.

"Do not refuse anything you possess, even though you may need it.

"Be silent concerning what God may have given you and recall that saying of the bride: My secret for myself [Is. 24:16].

"In the tasks you have to perform, rather than others, imitate Christ, who is supremely perfect and supremely holy, and you will never err.

"Anyone who complains or grumbles is not perfect, nor even a good Christian.

The comments of St Teresa will help to clarify this matter. Don't think this just applies to enclosed religious in convents. Everyone must learn the language of perfection today:

"I told you elsewhere that the devil sometimes puts ambitious desires into our hearts, so that, instead of setting our hand to the work which lies nearest to us, and thus serving Our Lord in ways within our power, we may rest content with having desired the impossible. Apart from praying for people, by which you can do a great deal for them, do not try to help everybody, but limit yourselves to your own companions; your work will then be all the more effective because you have the greater obligation to do it. Do you imagine it is a small advantage that you should have so much humility and mortification, and should be the servants of all and show such great charity towards all, and such fervent love for the Lord that it resembles a fire kindling all their souls, while you constantly awaken their zeal by your other virtues? This would indeed be a great service to the Lord and one very pleasing to Him. By your doing things which you really can do, His Majesty will know that you would like to do many more, and thus He will reward you exactly as if you had won many souls for Him. (St Teresa of Avila, Seventh Mansion, Interior Castle.)

"But we shall not be converting anyone," you will say, "for all our sisters are good already." What has that to do with it? If they become still better, their praises will be more pleasing to the Lord, and their prayers of greater value to their neighbours. In a word, my sisters, I will end by saying that we must not build towers without foundations, and that the Lord does not look so much at the magnitude of anything we do as at the love with which we do it. If we accomplish what we can, His Majesty will see to it that we become able to do more each day."(Ibid.)

So within the context of giving our love to neighbor according to the priorities of our duties to God, and the responsibilities of our vocation, our share in the love of Christ should flow to individuals before we know anything about them, and after we know everything about them(including family members who may have failed to meet our expectations). We never withhold love from anybody in the name of "It's for their own good." We continue to love them, our family members, and to show forth that love, even while they are living a life of sin. That doesn't man we tell them that their sinful lifestyle doesn't matter and it's ok with us. No, to the contrary. We let them know that we disapprove of their sin, and then, "we continue to show them our love in good times and bad." It is God's own love. We don't begin to love others and then abruptly stop, once knowledge kicks in and we find we don't like how the other one lives, believes, or behaves. God's love doesn't function that way. That's our partially unmortified, fallen human nature falling back, and leaning on "natural judgments" rather than trusting in God, and thereby interfering with the Perfect Love which seeks to light a supernatural fire of compassion, wonder, and joy in the relationship with the other, especially the sinful other.

For the love we are to manifest is the same love that flows in His Divine Person. And when we manifest it, we become other Christs, loving others as He love us. There may be times when we will have to do and say things the ones we love don't want to hear, in response to duties, responsibilities, and a Higher Love, but there is never a time when we withhold love, and think unkindly of an individual. There will be times when the spouse, the child, or the neighbor may be unhappy with us, or what we say. But we do it with the same compassion that He showed, and that God has shown us when we have sinned against His law. Like the father awaiting the return of the prodigal son, our love is always vigilant and alive, watching and waiting for the return of the loved one.

For this love of neighbor we're talking about, to which Christ is calling us, is perfect love, which is another name for "sanctity." For Christ said to all of us, "Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect." Or another way to say it, "Have perfect charity for your neighbor as your Father has perfect charity for you." For this love of neighbor to which we are called is no harder, and no easier, than it is to become a saint. In its Christlike manifestation, it is the freedom of the fullness of God flowing within us without the obstruction of the selfishness we all inherit with original sin. And this latter inheritance, the Old Man we got from Adam, is the reason we find it so hard to love our neighbor. Because we are holding out on God over this or that possession we don't want to lose, the things that comprise our false selves, we are in no shape to carry out Christ's new commandment, and to perfectly love our neighbor since it involves a threat to one or another of our possessions. So, in order to allow this love for neighbor to reign in our life, we must gradually give up, one by one, all the things we are holding back from God, and which, simultaneously, require that we keep our neighbor at a safe distance.

In His love for us, Jesus held back nothing. He gave all He had for us: all His relatives and friends, all His possessions, all His human dignity and rights, all the things He loved in this world, as well as the final barriers to self-giving, His love for His own body and His own Life. Once you give the blood that flows in your veins, you've given the last full measure of devotion, and you won't be called on to give any more. In other words, unlike you and me, Jesus did not allow attachment to anything "natural" to interfere with His full exercise of "supernatural" Love for His neighbor, the whole human race. And this is the radical nature of the love for neighbor, in its perfection, Jesus asks of us when He says, "Love one another as I have loved you." With man, of course, such love is not possible. However, with God, "all things are possible."

So how do you and I begin to love our neighbor, coming as we do from entrenched selfishness? How can we love our neighbor who may take our time, our attention, our rights, our possessions, or our dignity? Where do we draw the line? First of all, as our primary spiritual business, we must make an effort to stay recollected during the day within the parameters of carrying out the duties and responsibilities of our vocation. This "one to one" relationship with God must become our strength in all circumstances, even within our need to earn a living and raise a family. This is the fulfillment of the First Commandment, which is required of every human being, of every vocation, born into this world. No one says it is easy, but the saints are there to prove it can be done anywhere, in any circumstances. Without such recollection, our natural weaknesses and our inherent selfishness will begin to rule our consciousness, and our relationships with our neighbor, during the day.

Next, within the context of ongoing efforts at recollection, we must give our time and attention primarily to those persons who are entitled to it depending on our vocation. We must withdraw ourselves from work situations which involve mindless chattering, constant television, and other distractions by which we entertain ourselves. That does not mean we ever stop being loving and kindly in any interactions with others.

There is a time and place for recreation, and this may include recreational chatting, movies, or televison. However, we are not meant to exhaust our spirits in a compulsive effort to entertain ourselves every moment, and to manifest conversation and love every human being on the planet. Like the good stewart, we are meant to always establish and maintain a measure of reserve, and to "stay connected" to God, our Source in all circumstances. This is why we practice "custody of the eyes," and "custody of the heart." Then we can give from this bounty to those who are meant to receive our time and attention, connected with our vocational responsibilities. When we are finished with loving service to the limited number of persons in this context, we revert to full-time efforts to sustain our interior relationship with God, in Jesus Christ. We can get a feel for its power, and practice this interior recollection in places that would seem to militate against it. For example, when we go to public places, like busy shopping centers, we can practice "custody of the eyes," and staying centered in God rather than in the forms and faces of all the people, and activities we encounter.

Once our lives are under control of the Holy Spirit, through ongoing efforts at recollection, God will "gradually" ask us to become more and more unselfish in meeting the needs of our neighbors. When the call to love our neighbor comes within this limited, organized context, we will be given sufficient grace to make the correct decision, and to choose love over the pull of selfishness connected with one or another of our possessions. The issue often hinges over trifles, i.e., our opinion, our way of doing things, our rights, something we want others to leave alone, the way other people do or fail to do certain things, things people say,etc. If these things about other people are upsetting us, and causing anger and resentment, it tells us something about our attachments and lack of recollection. If our minds our full of negative judgments about the things other people do, then we are no longer dwelling on God, and we must renew our effort at recollection. For the radical love of neighbor to which God is calling us today is nothing less than the perfection of "sanctity."

Of course there will be days and times when recollection is extremely difficult. During this time our interior connection with God will seem, perhaps, to not exist. But these times of testing, or sickness, will pass, and we must continue with our efforts if we are to ultimately establish God's reign as the Soul of our soul. For in seeking the sanctity to which Christ is calling us, our Old Man, our old way of life with constant talking, constant television, and constant distraction, will die so that we may live as a New Man, a recollected man, in God. The comments of John of Rueysbroeck are pertinent to the life of charity to which we all are called:

"When through love we deny our own will and give ourselves to that of God in such a way that we no longer wish for anything except what God wishes, then, we make a profession of true sanctity to God, whatever our condition, whatever our state in life. However, when we seek to be certain and sure, instead of trusting in God, when our will wants and does not want, it is still not yet united with the divine will...and we cannot profess love but must remain novices."

"When love recovers and burns within us to such an exalted degree that it completely destroys within us all such imperfect love, all pain and fear of losing and hope of gaining, and all that by which we seek our own ends, then there will be a pure , clean and perfect charity. In this , not only is love set in order, but all the other virtues as well, for here is to be found their source, their life, their growth, their sustenance and their conservation, in their proper order and variety of expresson according to the action performed and the habits acquired."

"Charity, however, rests with the beloved in the inner chamber, beyond reason and beyond the exercise of virtue as such; there...the soul has all that she can desire and long for, never having to look outside herself for anthing, for she has God within her and is enraptured in her ascent to God, being stripped of everything. She is made to transcend reason when ordinary means fail and in happy ignorance without hesitation, she is captivated by love."(John of Ruesbroeck, The Seven Guardians of Love, Ch. 13)

End

Life's a Battle Son
by Andrew Richards

"Life's a battle son, by the strong the victory's won."
His father's words of solid truth rang in the old man's ears
His father's message told the boy, how his life should run,
Remember "Life's a battle son," repeated through the years.

The man was old, his body spent, from battles down the years,
He had a name, great wealth and fame, but morals he hadn't any,
Full of pride, he didn't care, he'd conquered all his fears,
He'd beat them all, one by one, and the people he hated were many.

He sat alone in a large old house, the grounds were vast and spacious,
His mood was dark remembering faces of people he'd battled and won,
He looked at plans to gain more wealth, his appetite was voracious,
His father's words, he heard in his gloom , "It's all a big battle son!"

An adopted child, raised in wealth, his parents he never knew,
His mother had said, the father's last words, in the leaf of a book they were written,
The book now lost, had come with the child, his father's words so true,
His father'd died in some far off land, by the lure of travel'd been smitten.

Alone in his room, the old man did jump, as the telephone suddenly rang.
Twas the doctor who said, the cancer has spread, for you the battle is lost,
Cursing the doctor, the phone he did throw, he threw it down with a bang,
Life was a battle, he'd won every one, he'd never counted the cost.

Alone in his room, he reached for the drawer, he opened it very wide,
He thought of his father, hating his words, and the life they had led him to run,
He pulled out a gun, and his mouth he did open, placing the barrel inside,
As the trigger he pulled, he hated the thought, "by the strong the victory's won."

The funeral took place, and the people he hated, shared in the old man's gold,
While cleaning the cellar, a book they did find, from a father to his son.
In the leaf of the book, a message they read, from a loving father old,
"Bless you son, of truths I might leave you, they're all summed up in one."

"Sin dogs our days upon the earth like a hand within a glove.
For in giving we receive, and in spiritual strength we've won.
The world, the Flesh, and the Devil are beat by overcoming Love.
So life is a battle, and to the strong, goes victory my son."

End

"The love that is charity, therefore, springs from a source that far transcends human love and enables us to participate even now in that divine good which is our All. Such a love, coming from God, who is Love, enables us to return to him in an ecstasy of self-forgetfulness and to embrace our fellow-man in that same love, without becoming possessive or possessed by any human love. Achieving this, we fulfill Christ's supreme mandate of charity: "Love one another as I loved you". (Fr. Jordan Aumann, O.P.)

St Thomas Aquinas:

The root of merit is charity. Although charity embraces the love of God and neighbor,... to love God in himself is more meritorious than to love one's neighbor .... Therefore that which belongs more directly to the love of God is more meritorious on the basis of object than that which belongs to the love of neighbor because of God.

"Now the contemplative life has direct and immediate reference to the love of God .... But the active life is more directly ordained to the love of neighbor .... Therefore in its nature the contemplative life is of greater merit than the active life ....

"Nevertheless it may happen that a person will merit more in the works of the active life than does another in the activities of the contemplative life; for example, if, out of an abundance of divine love, a person consents to be separated from the sweetness of divine contemplation for a time to fulfill God's will and for his glory."(Summa theologiae, II-II, q. 182, a. 2.)

St Paul tells us what charity is not:

"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing." For charity is the transformative, Self-Giving Love of the Spirit of God. And it is through the practice of regular, life-giving Contemplative Prayer that the Spirit of God and His Charity become powerfully real in our lives.

"For hence it arises that in the case of some who have despised the greatest possessions of this world, and not only large sums of gold and silver, but also large properties, we have seen them afterwards disturbed and excited over a knife, or pencil, or pin, or pen. Whereas if they kept their gaze steadily fixed out of a pure heart they would certainly never allow such a thing to happen for trifles, while in order that they might not suffer it in the case of great and precious riches they chose rather to renounce them altogether. For often too some guard their books so jealously that they will not allow them to be even slightly moved or touched by any one else, and from this fact they meet with occasions of impatience and death, which give them warning of the need of acquiring the requisite patience and love; and when they have given up all their wealth for the love of Christ, yet as they preserve their former disposition in the matter of trifles, and are sometimes quickly upset about them, they become in all points barren and unfruitful, as those who are without the charity of which the Apostle speaks: and this the blessed Apostle foresaw in spirit, and "though," says he, "I give all my goods to feed the poor, and give my body to be burned, but have not charity, it profiteth me nothing."(Abbot Moses)

"And from this it clearly follows that perfection is not arrived at simply by self-denial, and the giving up of all our goods, and the casting away of honours, unless there is that charity, the details of which the Apostle describes, which consists in purity of heart alone. For "not to be envious," "not to be puffed up, not to be angry, not to do any wrong, not to seek one's own, not to rejoice in iniquity, not to think evil" etc. what is all this except ever to offer to God a perfect and clean heart, and to keep it free from all disturbances?" (Ibid)

And St. Paul continues: "Charity is patient, charity is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away...and now abideth faith, hope and charity, but the greatest of these is charity."

Charity is the quality and taste of the Spirit of God. And as we see above, His Holy Spirit has this quality: it is a Humble Spirit. "It vaunteth not itself." "It is not puffed up." "It seeketh not its own." For in his definition of charity, the Supernatural Life of God, St Paul automatically includes the definition of "Humility." For humility is the capacity to give and receive love; and love is another name for charity. And we were created in the image and likeness of God, filled with a Spirit of Unselfish, Self-Giving Love, which man rejected by Original Sin. And through Contemplative Prayer, empowered by the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ, we are gradually transformed in Charity to our real selves, the original image and likeness of God.

And this likeness finds its origin and reflection in the Reality of the Life of the Trinity, where the Spirit of God abides in Self-Giving Love. And this Trinitarian Love finds Its fulfillment in Humbly Giving and Receiving Love within the Trinity, and in Eternally Creating an infinite variety of creatures that express different aspects of This Wonderous Love. And if we are to become true Contemplatives, leading to a transformation of our will into the Will of Christ, then our spirit must also become like Almighty God, a Humble Spirit, capable of giving and receiving love. For Love and Humility are of a piece. There can be no Charity without Humility. For perfect humility means our will is "unattached" to our "self," and ambition, possessions, and honors, which are an extension of the self, and free to surrender completely to the Self-Giving Love of Almighty God. So the self-giving of charity without the freedom from pride and self-love, characterized by humility, is a non-sequitur; it is no longer true Charity; it becomes a sterile charicature, the superficial "appearance" of the real thing, i.e., "sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal."

So "Humility" must always take center stage in the life of a Contemplative. Then, the love of neighbor will become a possibility. For the spiritual fires of the nights of senses and spirit have no other goal than to establish Humility as the foundation of the spiritual edifice, so that the Spirit of God, the Self-Giving Love of of Charity, will find its natural home within the spirit of the believer, and can go out from there to other men and the whole world. For just as pride turns our will away from the God we were created to love, and directs and attaches that love to our "self," and our possessions, so humility is the state in which our will is free of self, and possessions, and properly directed to love of God and neighbor.

So we must, each of us, begin to work at this powerful thing called Humility, if we are to have any part in Contemplative Prayer and the love of neighbor in the Charity of Jesus Christ. For it is the goal of all our asceticism. For it is only by virtue of humility, that we are able to turn away from attachment to self, money, possessions, and ambition for recognition and honor, while giving adoration to God and seeking the good of our neighbor. And when we are invited to a dinner or wedding feast, as Christ told us, we should seek the last, rather than the first place. When we are in a group of people, and everyone is seeking the attention of the prominent members of the group, let us follow Christ, and seek out the least prominent members, the ones that no one pays attention to, and spend time talking to them. And when we are with people we find unattractive for some reason, or people we consider uninteresting, let us make a special effort to speak with them, and to learn from them. This is not condescension, for in truth, they are as much deserving of our time and attention as anyone else. For it is a spiritual truism, that he who for love, denies his egotism, and places himself last in this natural life, shall be first in Supernatural Life, with a power of love that radiates goodness and kindness, and attracts other to it like a magnet. For he shall be most like God.

So the Charity to which we are called as Contemplative Christians, in its perfection, includes all that is best in human love. This Charity, which has its home in Christ's Spirit, enters our spirit and perfects our human nature and our natural capacity to love our neighbor. And this love, like that of St Francis or Mother Teresa, has a character that is warm, outgoing, and humanly attractive. For it is God's own Spirit Loving in us, and Loving other people and all of Creation through us. And it is built on the solid foundation of humility, the attractive and visible sign of true love, with a self-giving quality that seeks to serve and to love our neighbor, without failing to first love God, in fulfillment of the First Commandment

Finally, we should remember charity to our own self. In this regard, it is spiritually helpful to set aside time everyday for "recreation" of our natural man. Physical activity, recreational conversation, music, gardening, household tasks, exercise, swimming, games, drama, and other forms of legitimate entertainment conducive to overall wellbeing are gifts of God for which we should be grateful, and some of which should be part of every contemplative life.