Lectio
“In order to live in one single act of perfect Love, I offer myself to Your Merciful Love, asking You to consume me incessantly, allowing the waves of infinite tenderness shut up within You to overflow into my soul.”
— Thérèse of Lisieux, Story of a Soul
Meditatio
How do I put into words the sweetness of my heartache, the brokenness through which my entire being longs for union with you, the joy of this agony, this sorrow, this utter despair for you? How do I say that I wish it were not so, but that I would have it no other way? How do I tell you, show you, give you — I love you? How do I give you my everything when you are my everything? How can I give you my life when I am powerless to do so without you? How can I love you as you love me when my very love for you is a mere reflection — a refraction — of your love for me? How can I do anything without you when I am nothing, I am no one, I am nowhere, without you?
Oratio
I love you
I love you
I love you
I’m sorry
that my love for you
does not always feel
like love to you
like love for you
but I do
a million times over
I do
without hesitation
regret
or reconsideration
I do
every single day
now and forever
I do
Contemplatio
Sit with the line: my very love for you is a mere reflection — a refraction — of your love for me. What does it feel like to know that even your longing for God is God already moving in you?
Related Scripture
“We love because he first loved us.” — 1 John 4:19 (NRSVCE)
For Further Reading
If you enjoyed this post, you may also like The First Word Was Love: A Prayer of Consent to the Love That Is All in All, which explores how Love is not merely one gift from God among many but the ground of our being itself — and how our longing to love is already God’s own love seeking to return to its source in us.
Robert Van Valkenburgh
Grappling With Divinity.
Wrestling With God.
Returning To Love.
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