Love in Thought

One of the recurring problems of the spiritual life is to keep the various parts of spiritual perfection in perspective. Certain elements of the spiritual life will be more attractive to one man than to another, or one part may be earnestly urged on him more than an other part. So it is important to keep first what the word of God puts first: "The greatest of these is Charity," (1 Cor. 13:13) by which is meant, of course, the love of God and neighbor. All other parts of the spiritual life, no matter how appealing, are secondary to this.

Enough has been said about love of God to make some people want to express this love humanly, that is, to want to give it some external reality. We want to do for God what we want to do for anyone we love deeply-and here we meet a disappointing impossibility. God is the only one who doesn't need anything. Even his happiness is complete in the oneness of the three Divine Persons. But our search for a human fulfillment of our love has not escaped the planning of God, who knows this need in our nature. He has given us a way to do for Him by doing for others. Our Lord's words are familiar: "As long as you did it for one of these, the least of my brethren, you did it for me." (Matt. 25:40)
In God's making His Son to be our Master and Brother, and in the brother's willingness to identify Himself with even the worst of us, we find that God counts what we do for others as if we were doing it for Him. We should therefore almost tremble with reverence in the face of the needs of our neighbor.
When we think of doing something for God through our neighbor, we most often think of deeds. Our love, as we have stated, must be more than just wishing well to another. What God is asking of us is that we apply some degree of this same concern to others. It is necessary to enter somehow into the spiritual person of our neighbor. We must in some way feel things in the way He is feeling them. God tells us this in the words of the Apostle Paul: "Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep, Be of one mind toward one another." (Romans 12:15, 16)
This ministry is geared in that direction, and we hope and pray that with the help of believers we will reach our goal of being enabled to help the less fortunate ones in our sin-filled society! Can you help? You can pray about it, and if you have love in your heart. send through Western Union your love gift to: Pastor Daniel Dhaene Purok 3, Brgy Barra,Lucena City 4301 Quezon Province, Philippines. It will be put to good use! Thanks, And God Bless you as you strive to do His Will! You can also donate an easier way by sending a check in my name to: Manager, The Bank of Montreal 1315 Commissioners Road East, London Ontario, Canada At the back of the check, write: For deposit in the account of Daniel N. Dhaene only.