October 23, 2013 WBAS Cat Prayers & Reflections, WBAS Topics Virtues & Values, REL Topic- Virtues/Values, REL Asset - Prayer Card
By: Kathy Hendricks
With All Saints Day approaching, I have been thinking about the small “s” saints in my life. My parents, saints Al and Nellie. My friends, saint John the chaplain and saint Joanie the high school counselor. And, of course, my beloved daughter, saint Jenny. All have passed on and yet their presence in my life remains strong. I cherish the image of their inclusion in that huge circle called the Communion of Saints.
These thoughts have underscored a deeper reflection about love. I just googled the word and 4,800,000,000 results popped up! So, we obviously are not short of references to and fascination with the concept of love. As a virtue, it tops the list. “So, faith, hope, and love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love” (1Corinthians 13:13). In the Scripture God is love (1John 4:8), and the simple command of Jesus is to love each other as he loves us (John 13:34).
So, when I ponder the lives of the saints, especially those who have graced my life, I am given greater insight into what love means in its different forms. Jenny introduced me to parental love – that deep devotion that changed me forever. Losing her at the age of a year brought me face to face with the riskiness of giving ourselves wholeheartedly to another in love, as well as with the absolute joy in doing so. My friends, John and Joanie, bring to mind the beauty of friendship that, in the words of C.S. Lewis, is “the happiest and most fully human” of all loves. Our friendship was sealed in a group we called “Home Church” and brought us together for food and conversation on a monthly basis. Dying, as they did, on the same day and yet hundreds of miles apart, only intensifies my awe at the deep mystery of human connection that is bound together in love.
Then there is the love that my parents experienced for over sixty years. I knew only part of what they shared together over that time. My father never stopped calling my mother his “bride”, and their commitment to one another remained steadfast until the end. Marital love forms the basis for understanding the covenant God forms with humans in the Old Testament. It entails long-lasting dedication and commitment, one vacillating between vexation and tenderness as the promises for lifelong love are carried out. What may begin as eros, that passionate, breathless form of love, mellows over time into something deeper and richer. At its fullest, love ripens into agape – perfect love that brings us into communion with God and with all of God’s holy ones. The circle is then complete.
Bright Ideas
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Read more about the Communion of Saints and download activities for the children in your family or class.
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Download my Prayer for Love and share it in your parish or home.