What is our reason for loving God? God himself is the reason we love
Him; we love Him because He is the supreme and infinite goodness.
What is our reason for loving ourselves? Surely because we are the
image and likeness of God. And since all men and women possess this
same dignity we love them as ourselves, that is, as holy and living
images of the godhead. It is as such that we belong to God through a
kinship so close and a dependence so lovable that he does not
hesitate to call himself our Father, and to name us his children. It
is as such that we are capable of being united to him in the fruition
of his sovereign goodness and joy. It is as such that we receive his
grace and that our spirits are associated with his most Holy Spirit
and rendered, in a sense, sharers in the divine nature.
As Jacob saw that the same ladder touching heaven and earth was used
by the angels both for ascending and descending, so we can be sure
that the same charity cherishes both God and our neighbor, raising us
even to spiritual union with God, and bringing us back to loving
companionship with our neighbors. It must always be understood,
however, that we love our neighbors for this reason, that they are
made in the image and likeness of God, created to communicate in His
goodness, share in His grace, and rejoice in His glory.
St. Francis de Sales
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Lord, may everything we do begin with Your inspiration and continue
with Your help,
so that all our prayers and works may begin in You and by You be happily ended.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
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