Ah, love. It is good, isn’t it! No matter how crazy this day gets commercially, I still get a kick out of giving and receiving “valentines”, seeing little red and pink hearts everywhere, and hearing the sweet stories of valentine celebrations.

As a Catholic Sister, I still enjoy the romanticness of the day, though of course the celebrations are different today than my “pre-nun” days. And, my sense of what love is has evolved over the years too as I’m sure it has for you as well.

Here are a few quotes that speak to me about how I see love now … please share some of your own!

• “Nothing is more practical than finding God, that is, than falling in love in a quite absolute, final way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you will do with your evenings, how you will spend your weekends, what you read, who you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in love, stay in love and it will decide everything.” – Father Pedro Arrupe, SJ (talk given to a group of religious sisters per Father Kevin F. Burke, SJ)

• “As for what concerns our relations with our fellow men [sic], the anguish in our neighbor’s soul must break all precept. All that we do is a means to an end, but love is an end in itself, because God is love.” – Saint Teresa Benedict of the Cross (Edith Stein) (source unknown)

• “What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like.” — Saint Augustine (source unknown)

• “It is not so essential to think much as to love much.” — Saint Teresa of Avila, Interior Castle, Fourth Mansions 1.7)

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Join the A Nun’s Life Community for prayer at 6 p.m. CT in the chat room today.

Today we have a special guest blog post from our friend Marla ….

I saw God today. I was sitting outside a downtown coffee shop when a boy about 15 approached a homeless man and gave him the shoes off his feet. They were nice shoes, way nicer than the hole-filled, sole-flapping things that the man wore before this kid showed up. The boy walked off with his friends wearing only socks. He was smiling. It blew my mind, but God tends to do that.

I heard God speak today. A young man confessed an insensitive act to a youth minister who had been the butt of his joke. The youth minister took the boy’s hand and said, “I forgive you.”

God visited a woman abandoned in a Nashville nursing home and made her laugh.

God walked into a podcast and a chat room last night and so many other nights and filled it with love and laughter and connection and all manner of good things.

I felt God’s touch today when a physical therapist massaged and loosened the muscles in my body that had grown stiff from the constant pain in my long bones.

I saw God today. There was a huge fight, protesters and counter-protesters, angry people everywhere. The group settled inexplicably when my friend, a nun, wordlessly walked into their midst holding a sign that said, simply, “Love.”

I lose God, sometimes, but then I open my eyes. Wherever God’s people gather, God can be found. Evident in everything from ocean waves to loyal dogs, God is most present to me in other people.

Where have you seen God lately?

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Join the A Nun’s Life community for prayer at 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone).

This morning I watched live video coverage of the rescue of the tenth Chilean miner, Alex Vega. He emerged from the rescue capsule and made the sign of the cross. Seconds later, he and his wife embraced. The two gestures were powerful and deeply symbolic. To me, they reflected the intimate connection between love and the cross.

A police officer tries to reach a child’s balloon in “Camp Hope,” where miners’ families have slept in tents and campers during the rescue operation. Associated Press photo.

The gestures remind me that Jesus took up the cross not just at the end of his life. He took it up every day because he loved people. Out of this love, he chose to help others—people who were poor and sick; people who were social outcasts; people of wealth and power who were in need of transformation. His choice to act out of love often brought suffering into his own life. To me, it wasn’t the suffering that made his cross meaningful. It was the love.

When I watch the miners and their families being reunited, I think about how love places a claim on us. Love can compel people to choose dangerous jobs in order to provide for loved ones. Love means living with the possibility that those who are most dear to us may not return at the end of the day. I think that love brings risk, but even more than that, it brings meaning and hope to life. So today, as the rescue continues, the word that will be my constant prayer for the miners, their families, and the rescue teams is “love.”

Please join me by offering your word of prayer for the miners, their families, and the rescue teams.

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters” and chat room. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

Just the other day I came across my copy of The Hound of Heaven. It’s a poem about God’s untiring pursuit of us, a chase inspired by God’s great love. The poem was written around 1900, by Francis Thompson.

The hound image made me think of a song that one of my sisters recently told me about, “God and Dog.” Like the poem, the song is also about God’s persistent love, which takes many shapes in our life, such as our pets.

So today I give thanks for pets, especially Abby and Bailey (two of my favorite dogs) and of course Chloe the Convent Cat. Do you have a prayer of thanksgiving for a pet you know or one you fondly remember? If so, please add their names (in the comment box below) to our Litany of Pets! We’ll pray the litany at prayer tonight.

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters” and chat room. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

Today’s Scripture reading from Saint Paul’s letter to the Romans is a powerful reminder that each and every one of us has a calling.

All of us, in union with Christ, form one body, and as parts of it we belong to each other. Our gifts differ according to the grace given us. If your gift is prophecy, then use it as your faith suggests; if administration, then use it for administration; if teaching, then use it for teaching. Let the preachers deliver sermons, the almsgivers give freely, the officials be diligent, and those who do works of mercy do them cheerfully.

Do not let your love be a pretense, but sincerely prefer good to evil. Love each other as much as sisters and brothers should, and have a profound respect for each other. Work for the Lord with untiring effort and with great earnestness of spirit. If you have hope, this will make you cheerful. Do not give up if trials come; and keep on praying. If any of the saints are in need you must share with them; and you should make hospitality your special care.

Bless those who persecute you: never curse them, bless them. Rejoice with those who rejoice and be sad with those in sorrow. Treat everyone with equal kindness; never be condescending but make real friends with the poor. Do not allow yourself to become self-satisfied. (Romans 12:5-16)

A vocation is not just a calling to consecrated life (such as becoming a sister or monk or deacon); a vocation is a calling to each and everyone of us to live our life fully using the gifts that God has given to us and the grace that God continually gives us. Saint Paul gives us some examples (first paragraph) and he also gives us a kind of road map to living fully (second two paragraphs). Listen to some of the key words of this road map:

prefer good to evil … love … have profound respect for people
minister with earnestness of spirit … hope … do not give up
keep praying … share … give hospitality … bless and never curse people
be in solidarity with those who rejoice or are in sorrow
treat everyone with equal kindness … make real friends with the poor

These are some of the dispositions that we can take to heart and in doing so live more fully the life God has blessed us with.

Pick one, just one, of these “landmarks” on the road map and consider how you can take it to heart each moment of this day and into the week.

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Join us for prayer using this readin today at noon Central Time at http://anunslife.org/live. Prayer is still at noon, but because of Daylight Savings Time, it may have changed for you.
Here’s the time in your neck of the woods.

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