When we love another heart
And allow it to love us,
We journey deep below time
Into that eternal weave
Where nothing unravels …
- John O’Donohue (excerpt)
Daily Advent Devotional: WEEK of LOVE: Day 22- Sun, Dec 19
I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.
Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.
— John 13:34
In the same way, let your light shine before others.
— Matthew 5:16
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Love glows bright as the focus of this week’s reflections. As you light four candles, prepare to welcome holy love into your home and life.
Can you imagine a love more determined than the one that chooses to show up in our messy and imperfect world? To be born human?
It takes a stubborn love to move toward us, because we cannot ever quite reach that love itself. That is what our holy stories translate to us. Love chooses to be with us and among us in this season. And every day.
The holy love narrated in our scriptures points toward agape. Agape is a love greater than ourselves. It is different than erotic or passionate love, larger and deeper than love for friends or family.
Agape gives of itself. And part of that giving begins with movement. Holy love has turned to us and returned to us, chosen us over and over, meeting us where we are, coming to this world and time in which we live. Love shines out as the final light of Advent: until the arrival of the Christ light. — Rev Gail
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When I say it’s you I like, I’m talking about that part of you that knows that life is far more than anything you can ever see or hear or touch. That deep part of you that allows you to stand for those things without which humankind cannot survive. Love that conquers hate, peace that rises triumphant over war, and justice that proves more powerful than greed. ― Fred Rogers
When you possess light within, you see it externally. – Anais Nin