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/ Our Father's Love
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"Charity
is friendship between God and man based on sharing eternal
happiness: something we share not by natures but by the free gift
of God. So charity is not born in us by nature, not acquired by
our natural powers, but is a created share in the Holy Spirit, the
love of the Father and the Son, instilled into us by Him."
(St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church and "greatest
theologian in the history of the Church")
"Truly
to love God is a gift of God. He Himself has granted that He be
loved, who though not loved loves. Although we were displeasing we
were loved, so that there might be produced in us [something] by
which we might please. For the Spirit whom we love together with
the Father and the Son pours forth the charity [of the Father and
the Son] in our hearts [Rom. 5:5]." (St. Prosper/Council of Orange
II, 529 A.D.)
"From
that which God fashioned, Adam was changed by his own iniquity,
but for the worse. From that which injustice has effected, the
faithful (man) is changed by the grace of God, but for the better.
Therefore, the former change was (the result) of the first
transgression, the latter according to the Psalmist 'is the change
of the right hand of the Most High [Ps. 76:11].'" (St.
Prosper/Council of Orange II, 529 A.D.)
"Have
a great love for those who contradict and fail to love you, for in
this way love is begotten in a heart that has no love. God so acts
with us, for he loves us that we might love by means of the very
love he bears toward us." (St. John of the Cross, Doctor of
the Church)
"May
the perfect love of God reign in our hearts!" (St. Louis de
Montfort)
"Love
one another as Jesus Christ has loved us, not because of any merit
that may be found in us, but only because he created us in his
image and likeness." (St. Francis de Sales, Doctor of the
Church)
"And
that we may be worthy to obtain what we long for, let us strive to
live in such a way that we may not be unworthy of so great a
Father." (St. Bede the Venerable, Doctor of the Church)
"For
from God we receive only such things as are good, of what kind
they may seem to us when we receive them; for all things work
together for good to His beloved. " (Early Gloss)
"In
Heaven, the soul is certain that she loves God, and that he loves
her; she sees that the Lord embraces her with infinite love, and
that this love shall not be dissolved for all eternity." (St.
Alphonsus Liguori, Doctor of the Church)
"The
mind, therefore, that is bound by the bondage of fear knows not
the grace of liberty. For good should be loved for itself, not
pursued because of the compulsion of penalties." (Pope St.
Gregory the Great, Doctor of the Church)
"For,
so great is the goodness of God towards all men that He wishes the
merits, which are His own gifts, to be ours, and in consideration
of those which He has conferred, He intends to give eternal
rewards. For He acts in us that we may both will and do what He
wishes, nor does He allow those gifts to be idle in us which He
has given to be used and not to be neglected, that we also may be
cooperators with the grace of God. And if we see that there is any
listlessness in us as a result of our relaxation, let us carefully
have recourse to Him, who heals all our weaknesses and redeems our
life from destruction [Ps. 102:3 f.], and to whom we daily say:
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil [Matt.
6:13]." (Council of Ephesus, 431 A.D.)
"In
the transgression of Adam all men lost their 'natural
power' and innocence, and no one can rise from the depth of
that ruin through free will, unless the grace of a merciful God
raise him up, [according as] Pope Innocent of blessed memory
proclaimed and said in his letter to the Council of Carthage: 'For he, having once braved every consequence of free choice,
while he used his goods too unadvisedly, fell and was overwhelmed
in the depth of his transgression, and found no [way] by which he
was able to rise from it; and beguiled forever by his own liberty
he would have lain prostrate by the weight of this ruin, if the
coming of Christ had not afterwards lifted him up by virtue of His
grace, who through the purification of a new regeneration washed
away in the bath of His baptism every past sin.'" (Council of
Ephesus, 431 A.D.)
"The
end then of love is no other thing than the union of the lover and
the thing loved." (St. Francis de Sales, Doctor of the Church)
"What
is man that Thou wouldst be loved by him? And if he loves Thee
not, Thou threatenest him with heavy punishment. Is it not
punishment enough that I love Thee not?" (St. Augustine,
Doctor of the Church)
"You are closer to me than I to
myself, more inward than my innermost being" (St. Edith
Stein)
"God
is made a debtor not by receiving something from us but by
promising us what He is pleased to promise." (St. Augustine,
Doctor of the Church, circa 5th century A.D.)
"Even
the chastisements which come from the Lord are not for our
destruction, but for our good, and for the correction of our
faults." (St. Alphonsus Liguori, Doctor of the Church)
"O
my God, you have treated us with so much love. Help us to realize
what a great Good you really are. Never allow us to forget your
goodness and love." (St. Alphonsus Liguori, Doctor of the
Church)
"He
who emptied Himself with such generosity so as to enrich men and
comfort them in every need will not do less for one who loves and
serves Him from the depths of his being." (St. Placid
Riccardi)
"Give
our hearts that pure love borne on your love for us, that we may
love others as you love us. O most loving Father of Jesus Christ
from whom all love flows, grant that our hearts, frozen in sin and
grown cold toward you, may be warmed in the divine glow."
(St. Anselm of Canterbury, Doctor of the Church)
"O
God of love, you are and shall be forever the only delight of my
heart and the sole object of my affections. Since Jesus said, 'Ask
and you shall receive,' I do not hesitate to say, 'Give me your
love and your grace.' Grant that I may love you and be loved by
you. I want nothing else." (St. Alphonsus Liguori, Doctor of
the Church)
"According
to the Areopagite, the principal effect of love is to unite the
wills of lovers, so that they may have but one heart and one will.
Hence all our works, communions, prayers, penances, and alms
please God in proportion to their conformity to the divine will,
and if they be contrary to the will of God, they are no longer
acts of virtue, but defects deserving of chastisement." (St.
Alphonsus Liguori, Doctor of the Church)
"Ah,
boundless Goodness, how tenderly you now prove your love for me.
When I did not exist, you created me; when I abandoned you, you
refused to leave me; when I tried to run away from you, you held
me captive in love's chains. Ah, Eternal Wisdom, my heart now
desires to burst open, to be shattered into a thousand pieces, to
embrace you with constant love, and to consume all my days in
perfect praise of you." (Bl. Henry Suso)
"Since
a movement to contemplation of Self could not alone satisfy the
Goodness that is God, and since it was part of the Highest
Goodness that good must be poured out and go forth as multiplying
the objects of its beneficence, He first conceived the heavenly
and angelic powers. This conception was a work carried out by His
Word and perfected by His Spirit. Thus did the secondary splendors
come into being as ministers of the First Splendor" (St.
Gregory of Nazianz, Doctor of the Church, circa 380 A.D.)
"The
impure then cannot love God; and those who are without love of God
cannot really be pure. Purity prepares the soul for love, and love
confirms the soul in purity." (Cardinal Newman)
"Since
in every entreaty we have first to propitiate the good favor of Him whom
we entreat, and after that mention what we entreat for; and this we
commonly do by saying something in praise of Him whom we entreat, and
place it in the front of our petition; in this the Lord bids us say no
more than only, Our Father who art in Heaven. Many things were said of
them to the praise of God, yet do we never find it taught to the
children of Israel to address God as 'Our Father'; He is rather set
before them as a Lord over slaves. But of Christ's people the Apostle
says, We have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry Abba,
Father (Rom 8:15), and that not of our deserving, but of grace. This
then we express in the prayer when we say, Father; which name also stirs
up love. For what can be dearer than sons are to a father? And a
suppliant spirit, in that men should say to God Our Father. And a
certain presumption that we shall obtain; for what will He not give to
His sons when they ask of Him, who has given them that first that they
should be sons? Lastly, how great anxiety possesses his mind, that
having called God his Father, he should not be unworthy of such a
Father. By this the rich and the noble are admonished when they have
become Christians not to be haughty towards the poor or truly born, who
like themselves may address God as Our Father; and they therefore cannot
truly or piously say this unless they acknowledge such for
brethren." (St. Augustine, Doctor of the Church)
"Great
condescension! Though to keep his Lord's commandments is only what
a good servant is obliged to do, yet, if they do so, He calls them
His friends. The good servant is both the servant and the friend.
But how is this? He tells us: Henceforth I call you not servants,
for the servant knows not what his Lord does. Shall we therefore
cease to be servants, as soon as ever we are good servants? And is
not a good and tried servant sometimes entrusted with his master's
secrets, still remaining a servant? We must understand then that
there are two kinds of servitude, as there are two kinds of fear.
There is a fear which perfect love casts out; which also has in it
a servitude, which will be cast out together with the fear. And
there is another, a pure fear, which remains forever. It is the
former state of servitude, which our Lord refers to, when He says,
Henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knows not what
his Lord does; not the state of that servant to whom it is said,
Well done, you good servant, enter you into the joy of your Lord
(Matt 25:21), but of him of whom it was said below, The servant
abides not in the house for ever, but the Son abides ever.
Forasmuch then as God has given us power to become the sons of
God, so that in a wonderful way, we are servants, and yet not
servants, we know that it is the Lord who does this. This that
servant is ignorant of, who knows not what his Lord does, and when
he does any good thing, is exalted in his own conceit, as if he
himself did it, and not his Lord; and boasts of himself, not of
his Lord. But I have called you friends, for all things that I
have heard of My Father, I have made known to you." (St.
Augustine, Doctor of the Church)
Also
See: Love
(Topical Scripture)
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