“Be sure of my love. It is indestructible” (Inner Word).
The certainty of God’s love is the foundation on which we can build our whole life, both in time and in eternity. In every situation we find ourselves in, His love is present to strengthen us, comfort us and lift us up.
“Keep your heart anchored in me” (Inner Word)
Once we have surrendered our hearts to the Heavenly Father in response to His love for us, this act of surrender must be renewed and deepened again and again.
“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (Lk 23:34).
In these few words, the love of God shines forth in an incomparable way. In the midst of His suffering, Jesus looks up to His Father and utters this prayer for the salvation of mankind. He knew that the Father would listen to Him and accept the sacrifice He was about to make. Jesus knows that His Father’s gaze rests on Him with infinite complacency. Where is there a son who fulfils his father’s will so perfectly? Where is there a son who, in his most difficult hour, intercedes for the whole of humanity, thus completing his Father’s work?
‘It is preferable for scandal to arise than for truth to be abandoned’ (St. Bernard of Clairvaux).
“He who loves God will seek no other reward for his love than God Himself. If he hopes for something else, he does not love God but what he hopes to obtain” (St Bernard of Clairvaux).
“Trusted Father and Friend, I love you!”
“I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me, as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep” (Jn 10:14-15).
“See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are” (1 Jn 3:1a).
“The great work of Christ was to make the Father known” (St Hilary of Poitiers).
