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Theology of the Heart: Teachings of the Saints |
Loving the Lord Our God
Blessed Angela de Foligno
This
reading on loving the Lord was taken from the Magnificat for Friday,
March 20.
God, our uncreated, incarnate, supreme, and perfect Good, is total
love. He loves totally and wants to be loved totally. Hence, he
wants his [children] to be totally transformed into him by love...
Therefore God, noble by nature, wants the heart of his [child] not
partially but totally, without intermediary, and without any rival
companion. Our God, however, is so full of courtesy toward the soul
that if a soul gives its heart to him totally, he accepts it
totally, but if it gives it to him only partially, he accepts that,
even though it is in the nature of perfect love to want all and not
just a part. We know that a husband who loves his wife cannot bear
the the thought that in her secret heart he might share her
affections with another. But if a [child] of God would only get to
know and taste the love that is divine - that of the uncreated,
incarnate, and suffering God, who is the supreme Good - he would
give himself totally to him, and take leave not only of himselfbut
of other creatures as well. He would love this loving God so totally
that he would transform himself completely into this God-man, the
supreme Good, and beloved one. This is why, if a soul wishes to
attain this perfection of love--in which it gives itself completely
and serves God without the thought of a reward in this world, or
even in the next, but gives itself to God and serves hi for himself
alone, as the one who is totally good and the total good, and worthy
to be loved for himself alone--such a soul must enter through the
straight path and walk along it with a love that is pure, upright,
fervent, and ordered.
This page is the work of the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and
Mary
