You have only one Father,
and he is in heaven;
you have only one Teacher,
the Christ. MT 23:9, 10
1 JOHN 4:7-16
My Soul's Beloved,
To love is to will the good of the other. You are the epitome of Love, You are Love. Your Name is Love, Your nature is Love and You love without limit, without counting the cost. You pour Yourself on the beloved, the Church constantly and immeasurably. There is never a moment when You do not love for if You stopped loving us Lord, we would die.
Your love is life-giving, redeeming, salvific love. We must will to love for we do not always feel loving. We are sinners, broken, selfish and to love as God loves we cannot be navel-gazing. Love does not turn inwards on itself but is always gazing at the beloved and seeking their good always no matter the cost to oneself. The lover is always available and accessible to the beloved.
You taught us to love as You love. The Cross is the greatest lesson of death do self and life to the beloved. To love as You do, Lord, we need Your Holy Spirit and You have given Him to us this is why we have no excuse not to strive to love as You have loved us.
Teach me Your ways O Lord, guide me in Your paths, and never let me be parted from You until You call me home to Yourself.
God is love
and anyone who lives in love lives in God,
and God lives in him.
PSALM 118(119):9-14
My Soul's Beloved,
and anyone who lives in love lives in God,
and God lives in him.
PSALM 118(119):9-14
Lord, teach me your statutes.
How shall the young remain sinless?
By obeying your word.
I have sought you with all my heart;
let me not stray from your commands.
I treasure your promise in my heart
lest I sin against you.
Blessed are you, O Lord;
teach me your statutes.
With my tongue I have recounted
the decrees of your lips.
I rejoiced to do your will
as though all riches were mine.
Lord, teach me your statutes.
MATTHEW 23:8-12
My Soul's Beloved,
No one can usurp Your place, Your authority, Your dominion over us - You are the Rabbi, the Teacher, the Father, the Master and no man or woman can set themselves above You or against You. Many have come in Your Name and distorted Your teachings. They have taken Your Word, Your Teaching, Your signs and wonders out of context and built a house of cards made of half-truths and outright distortion of the truth. They have fragmented Your Body and continue to do so leading the gullible, the ignorant, and the foolish away from the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
Lord Jesus, You are the Cornerstone of the Church You founded on Peter whom You named Cephas - the Rock. The successors of Peter are the visible head of the Church while You O Lord are its invisible Head. You have given Peter, the Twelve, and their successors Your own authority to bind and to loose and You guarantee that whatever they bind and loose will be bound and loosed in heaven as well. Anyone or group of people who choose to cut themselves from Your Body are like the branches lopped off the Vine and eventually will shrivel and perish.
Many have exalted themselves and taken upon themselves the Church's teaching authority granted exclusively to the Twelve and their successors and have been humbled and disgraced. Faith, obedience, and a docile childlike spirit that is gladly and willingly yoked to You guarantee salvation. It is the little ones who will be saved.
‘The greatest among you must be your servant. Anyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and anyone who humbles himself will be exalted.’
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