FRIDAY III LENT: Teach me today to love you more

Jesus replied, “The first is this: Hear, O Israel!
The Lord our God is Lord alone!
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul,
with all your mind,
and with all your strength.
The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mk. 12:29-31)

You, you alone will be the sole object to which will tend all my affections and my every action. To please you, act for your glory, will be my daily task, the task of every moment of my life. I wish to live only for you, I wish to love you alone and all else in you and through you. I despise riches, I trample honours under foot; you are my all, replacing all else. My God, my love and my all: Deus meus et omnia.

Notes made during the retreat in preparation for priestly ordination, December 1-21, E.O. XIV n.95

REFLECTION

God of Goodness, I come into your presence so aware of my human frailty and yet overwhelmed by your love for me.

I thank you that there is no human experience that I might walk through where your love cannot reach me.

If I climb the highest mountain you are there and yet if I find myself in the darkest valley of my life, you are there.

Teach me today to love you more.

Help me to rest in that love that asks nothing more than the simple trusting heart of a child.

– Author Unknown

https://www.xavier.edu/jesuitresource/online-resources/prayer-index/gods-love