"God's love is constant and irrevocable; our part is to be open to it and let it transform us. There is absolutely nothing we can do to make God love us more than God already does; and there is absolutely nothing we can do to make God love us less. We are stuck with it! The only difference is between those who allow that and those who don't, but they are both equally and objectively the beloved."
-Hidden Things: Scripture as Spirituality, by Richard Rohr, ch. 8 The Resented Banquet
*
Jesus held my face in His hands and simply looked at me. I tried to hold His gaze, but there was so much love in His eyes that, after a while, I had to blush and look down.
“Do You love me so much?” I asked Him, shyly.
You know I do.
I thought of the song, “…for the Bible tells me so,” and smiled.
“Because You tell me so,” I said.
Because I died for you, Jesus said, His voice resonant with love.
*
“If You ever took Your love away from me, I would die,” I whispered, thinking about it.
I did die, because I never could, He replied.
*
“Maybe we should do something,” I suggested, getting to my feet eagerly.
All I want is to be with you, so anything you wish to do is fine by Me, Jesus replied, amiably.
“Again You say this,” I pondered, struck by it. “You really mean it.”
I meant it so much, I left heaven in order to be with you, He replied, smiling.
I leaned into His embrace and put my head against His chest. “Gosh,” I said, seriously. “I doubt we take that as personally as we could.”
I take it personally, Jesus replied, His voice gentle.
*
"We pursue because we have received a vision... After we have received such a revelation, we find that "thy love is better than wine." Therefore, we long for the kisses of his mouth.
"Indeed, His love is better than wine. Of everything that brings us joy, elation, and excitement, the Holy Spirit shows us that nothing can be compared to His love. Of all that entices us under the sun, nothing can be compared to His love. Once we have seen and known His love, is there anything under the sun that can compare with it?"
-Song of Songs, by Watchman Nee, Yearning (1:2-3)
*
"The surrendered soul knows, too, that the work is His, and that He, by His Spirit, must draw her out of herself into Him as her abiding place. "We will run after Thee," she says. Her part is in the will alone; she can but abandon herself to the skillfulness of His hands and respond to His drawing."
-Thy Hidden Ones: Union with Christ, Traced in the Song of Songs, by Jessie Penn-Lewis, The Soul's Vision (1:2)
*
Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything
to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something
unknown, something new.
And yet it is the law of all progress
that it is made by passing through
some stages of instability—
and that it may take a very long time.
And so I think it is with you;
your ideas mature gradually—let them grow,
let them shape themselves, without undue haste.
Don’t try to force them on,
as though you could be today what time
(that is to say, grace and circumstances
acting on your own good will)
will make of you tomorrow.
Only God could say what this new spirit
gradually forming within you will be.
Give Our Lord the benefit of believing
that his hand is leading you,
and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
in suspense and incomplete.
—Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ
