“Love divine, all loves excelling, joy of heaven to earth come down.” 

“The soul needs love as much as the body needs air.”  John O’Donahue[1]

The universe is comprised of darkness and light.  Light is energy.  God is light.  God is mystery.  Next to God, the greatest mystery in this life is love.

O’Donahue begins “Anam Cara” by writing of love.  As I read this first portion, I wondered what Gaelic word for love he would’ve used.  Indeed, there are many, the most common being Gradh (pronounced “graw”).  Mo ghradh means “my love”, “mo chridhe” means “My heart”, M’eudail means “my darling”, “Leannan” means “sweetheart”, and “A stoiridh” is used for someone who is deeply cherished. Finally, and most importantly, is “gradh dhe” which means “God’s Love.”

One is fortunate if we have been loved well as infants and children.  And even more fortunate if we can honestly say that we have experienced love, in whatever form, during our adult lives.  Sadly, I don’t believe that is true.  I sense that the desire to be well loved is an ongoing quest, too often insufficiently and temporality satisfied by human encounters in many forms, that leave us still seeking at the end of the day.  We seek to fill our soul’s cup with the love of a thing, an experience, or “another”, when it can only be satiated by experiencing The Other.  This is especially evident in those who have lost a loved one, for various reasons, and have embarked on a frantic journey to try to replace that person, only to be disappointed when they don’t find what or who they are looking for.  The truth is that the love that is lacking and being sought is never far from us, and in fact, might be dwelling within us.  It is the love of God.  Contemplate this as you consider the following from “Anam Cara” by  O’Donahue.

“You can search long years in lonely places, far outside yourself.  Yet the whole time, this love is but a few inches away from you.  It is at the edge of your soul, but you have been blind to its presence. . . When you learn to love and to let your self be loved, you come home to the hearth of your own spirit. . . When we love and allow ourselves to be loved, we begin more and more to inhabit the kingdom of the eternal . . . We do not need to go out to find love; rather, we need to be still and let love discover us.”

I’m curious–have you ever viewed, or better yet experienced, that kind of love?

Where have you been seeking love?  How have you been disappointed?

How do you experience love? How do you express your love?  And to whom?  When was the last time that you did so?

Why is it so difficult to accept the two most fundamental and foundational principals of faith, namely that God is love, and that we are loved by God?

How might your life be different if you recognized the intimacy of God’s love and embraced the unconditional and total acceptance of God’s love?

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[1] “Anam Cara”, p. 9