Living the Gospel

I am trying out something new I learned from St. Therese, the Little Flower. Remember how she kept smiling at the very difficult nun, who finally had a softening of heart?

My new prayer is this. God show me how to love...........(fill in the blank with a name).

Sometimes, people are so closed to love, one just cannot figure out how to love them.

In this younger generation who have stuffed themselves with things and sex, there is a lack of openings to real love. They do not know what love is and so one must pray for creative ways to love.

Now, when one is poor, one cannot go out and buy chocolates or flowers to show concern or compassion or empathy.

Like the Little Flower, who lived the life of poverty in the convent, one must love from the self, as it were. Doing dishes, sweeping a floor, being cheerful, complementing a dinner or comment, being creative in love can be a challenge. Some of those who are closed to love do not want to talk, or share anything about themselves.

And, so, I pray. God show me how to love........Perhaps the answer will be to only pray for that person.

I know, right now, in "my world" two people who have never experienced disinterested, free love. Their entire lives in their families were prisons of expectations, of love with strings attached. These two people, both solidly middle-aged, have never really felt love.

And, they are closed to love, objective, holy love. So, I stop and say, God show me how to love .....

Then, I listen.

Then, I act.

Try it. Stop pretending that you know how to love and let God love through you.

It is the love of God which converts and changes people, not our own limited love.