You Delight In Me As I Am

Dear Lord, one of the nicest cards I ever got had only four words on it: ‘I simply love you.’ At that time, this was what I most needed to hear. And, Lord, I always need to hear it from you.

I was greatly helped when, a few years ago, Pope Francis wrote in The Joy of the Gospel (n.6), ‘When everything is said and done, we are infinitely loved’. This massive statement about you, God, means that, no matter how I let you down, you delight in me as I am. I am radically loved; you are totally positive about me. Therapists try, more or less successfully, to develop unconditional positive regard for their clients, or else the therapeutic relationship will never take off. This reflects, at the human level, your regard for each of us. The relationship between you and me can take off only in this atmosphere. So let me believe, no matter what negative stories I carry from childhood, that no one can love me as you do, that you never turn away from me in despair or boredom and that nothing can increase or diminish your love for me.

Brian Grogan SJ, I Am Infinitely Loved