Words of Wisdom

          I have not been motivated lately to post any new blogs.  Perhaps it is because I have already shared a lot of my life lessons on marriage and family life. I really can't remember what lessons I have already written and I don't want to be repetitive.  Or maybe it's because I get tired of repeating the same words of encouragement over and over and over again:  LOVE, LOVE, LOVE.  And yet, I am drawn back to blogging today by today's liturgical reading of the first letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians on, you guessed it, LOVE.

"Love is patient, love is kind.  It is not  jealous, love is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrong-doing but rejoices with the truth.  It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  Love never fails.  So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love."  (1 Corinthians 13:4-8, 13) 

          This is the scripture reading used at most Christian weddings, including mine.  It had the most impact on me when at a seminar we were asked to read the first two sentences of this passage, replacing the words "love" and "it" with our own name:  Linda is patient, Linda is kind.  Linda is not jealous, Linda is not pompous, etc. Try it with your name.

          Prior to St. Paul giving us this beautiful description of love, he writes that we can have great faith and many spiritual gifts, but if we do not love, we gain nothing.  I used to think that I was holier than my husband because I prayed more, knew the faith more, cared about others more, and on and on.  Linda was pompous.  And then I realized that I was not love. 

          St. Therese of Liseaux shares in her autobiography that she always wanted to be a martyr for the faith and she was very sad that she was not going to die a martyr's death.  She looked to this letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians for words of wisdom and was inspired by Chapters 12 and 13 that her calling was to be love. It brought her great joy.

          Jesus commands us to love one another, and yet so many husbands and wives do not love each other and it makes everything so much harder, in an already challenging world.  The solution for all troubled marriages is not divorce, but love.  "Love never fails."   Being love brings great joy!