What is Love asking?

‘I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’ (John 13:34-35)

The word ‘love’ has been seriously diminished in our culture. It usually suggests romantic attachment or can be trivialised into ‘loving’ something as minor as a particular kind of food or leisure activity. M. Scott Peck very helpfully reminds us that ‘love is not an emotion, love is a decision’. The love of which the Gospel speaks is the challenge to approach our decisions by way of the question ‘what is Love asking of me in this situation?’ For Ignatius, this is the basis of Christian decision-making: to do the right and most loving thing in every particular situation, regardless of how we might be feeling about it.

Ignatius also reminds us that ‘love is shown in deeds rather than in words’.

Reflection

In the particular concern on my heart at present, how would I answer the question ‘What is Love asking of me in this situation?’

How am I choosing to act lovingly towards people I actually dislike?

How am I turning my words and intentions of love into practical action?

Prayer for Today

I desire, with all my heart, to learn to love others as you have loved us. Please give me the grace to choose the more loving way forward in every situation I encounter, and to express that love in practical action, regardless of how I might be feeling.

Novena Prayer

Lord, I come into your presence, drawn by your Holy Spirit, inspired by the life and teaching of your servant Ignatius and bringing before you my own intention in this special time of prayer (name your personal intention). Like Ignatius, I desire to know you more clearly, to follow you more nearly and to love you more dearly. Echoing his words and in the power of your Spirit, I dare to pray: Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will, all that I have and call my own. You have given all to me. To you, Lord, I return it. Everything is yours, dispose of it according to your will. Give me only your love and grace. This is enough for me.’