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When God said I love you

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Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed. How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! I try to count them—they are more than the sand; I come to the end—I am still with you. Jeremiah 1:5, Psalm 139:13-18 From before you were conceived, God loved you because He knew you and was prepared to choose good things for you, knowing our every sin and seeing the hurt and confusion they often come from.[1] There is no love song, poetry, Bible verse, or
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Key Themes of Sr. Miriam James Hiedland

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The ministry of Sr. Miriam Hiedland greatly blesses the Church in the US. If you are unfamiliar with this ministry look up any of her talks on YouTube and you will likely agree. I have been enamored with her work and have benefited from it. She makes a few key distinctions that form the essence of her pastoral ministry, and I would like to look at that with you. She treats brokenness with reverence and understanding and at the same time recognizes the truth of the context. These key points are not only the basis of her ministry of the Church's understanding of love and mission First, it is paramount that any brokenness is treated with reverence and revived with tender compassion. Our world shuns suffering, and sometimes even the people who care about us the most don’t receive our hurts and at the same time expect us not to act out of this brokenness. However, this is not how Christ encounters anyone nor anyone who is truly your friend. On the contrary, if with regard to ourselves.
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Greater love, hath no man than this

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"No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends." (John 15:13) We have already discussed the call to love as Christ has loved and how God loves sinners . Our topic, i.e., this verse, builds on such concepts but in a way surpasses them. It is fascinating that Christ asks His broken-sinner followers to not only imitate His love but also clarify that with a romantic description of the greatest love possible. The truth is man was made for a kind of love he seems to find himself incapable of without Christ. Even Mother Teresa has said, "Love has to suffer to be real". The love described here involves seeing others as more important than oneself and at times may truly require its literal application. First, let us consider what it means to consider the lives of others as more important than oneself. We can rarely express the greatest possible love in a literal and ultimate fashion as Christ dying on the cross after a romantic, candle-lit, sac
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Bernard of Clarivaux on Love

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Love is sufficient of itself, it gives pleasure by itself and because of itself. It is its own merit, its own reward. Love looks for no cause outside itself, no effect beyond itself. Its profit lies in its practice. I love because I love, I love that I may love. Love is a great thing so long as it continually returns to its fountainhead, flows back to its source, always drawing from there the water which constantly replenishes it. Of all the movements, sensations and feelings of the soul, love is the only one in which the creature can respond to the Creator and make some sort of similar return however unequal though it be. For when God loves, all he desires is to be loved in return; the sole purpose of his love is to be loved, in the knowledge that those who love him are made happy by their love of him. The Bridegroom’s love, or rather the love which is the Bridegroom, asks in return nothing but faithful love. Let the beloved, then, love in return. Should not a bride love, and above al
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Concupiscible Love

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The concupiscible passions stand related to good and evil simply and easily. This means that we are talking about the aspects of love that only require a little fortitude or diligence. Although, this kind of love certainly has its place. Christ communicates its importance by saying, "Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much, and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much."( Luke 16:10 ). Concupiscible love is necessary because it is how we are given the clarity to trust in a relationship where good is paramount, however,  Within our relationship with God and any relationship with others, we often think there is either total self-sacrifice or enjoyable convenience. This distinction is more unhelpful than it is false, and it is false. The reality is that the only enterprise that is truly worthwhile in the whole human project is love (implying proper order = justice). We are called to love all in various modes and expressions. Not only d
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Gratitude, the Act of Reception

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Catholic conferences and retreats speak extensively on the subject of being receptive and endeavoring to receive in truth what Christ offers in truth. As someone who values clarity and practicality, I am wont to ask, "But what does that mean?". Such questions can be hard to answer since to do so would be to describe spiritual realities, we cannot well perceive, and they very well defy description anyway by definition. Nevertheless, I think consideration helps here. I would posit that any attempt at intentionally receiving remains incomplete without an expression of gratitude since it requires both internalization and response. First, truly receiving something requires internalization. Internalization, as I use it, refers to the psychological indexing of that which is received, this opens up the subject to critical thought, practical use, and emotional response. Often, Catholics, and Christians more broadly, fail to truly receive faith because they fail to think critically abo
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