Page 78 - spiritual_accompaniment_montreal_archdiocese

THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

Through the experience of the free gift of love, through living forgiveness,
through the experience of sharing, to choose to love the other for the other
because quite simply, you just love him.
To love is to love! But it is also to receive love! It is to open oneself to love!
Inversely, to close oneself to the love of the others is also to love less! So to
love is also to be able to receive the love of the other.
How can we be more welcoming of love from others, from the person who
lives with us, the people we hold dear? How can we receive the love they want
to give us, the love they bear witness to, the love they shared with us? How can
we open ourselves to this love from these cherished people who surround us?

To give ourselves freely, but also to receive, with an open heart, the love of
the others, this kind of shared love leads to joy! The joy of being loved! The joy
of loving, the joy of giving ourselves, the joy of receiving love. And the com-
munion. The communion of persons, the growing exchange. Joy also grows,
even if it is by asking us to go further. It will always have its moments of
deception, its moments of sadness, perhaps there will be some wounds. But
joy grows through these deceptions, through sadness, through certain set-
backs in our love when we are tested and learn to overcome, because love is
our ultimate vocation. We are called to love God, but also to love the other and
to accomplish that through the grace of God.

Collection of texts by the Most Rev. Christian Lépine 78