This makes me think... prayer and love of neighbor are linked

Q: How does loving my neighbor -- husband, wife, children, friends, co-workers -- contribute to my contemplative prayer?


A: I may begin with the theological core of the matter: there is only one virtue of charity by which we love God, ourselves, and our neighbor. If I am not loving others -- although not necessarily liking them -- I cannot have a deep prayer life, for its heart, love, is missing. My prayer will be no better than my love for others. No set of techniques... will be able of themselves to improve it.


...


The whole of life is lived in the divine presence, which is an atmosphere of love. We are urged by St. Paul "to live through love in his presence (Eph 1:4).  St. Augustine also shrewdly noted that "in loving our neighbor the eye of our mind is purified to contemplate God." Loving our associates requires that we practice other virtues: humility, gentleness, patience, obedience. Thus we are purified of our faults, each of which may be an impediment to growth in divine intimacy.


---Thomas Dubay, S.M. Seeking Spiritual Direction,  Servant, 1993.

This makes me think... about devoted friends.

Particularly when I am worn out by the upsets of the world, I cast myself without reservation on the love of those who are especially close to me. 


I know that I can safely entrust my thoughts and considerations to those who are aflame with Christian love and have become faithful friends to me. For I am entrusting them not to another human, but to God in Whom they dwell and by Whom they are who they are.

---St. Augustine, Letter, 73, 3, as found in "Friendship is Godlike"in Augustine, Day by Day.

This makes me think...

Once and for all, a short rule is laid down for you: 


Love, and do what you will.


If you keep silence, do it out of love. If you cry out, do it out of love. If you refrain from punishing, do it out of love. 


Let the root of love be within. From such a root nothing but good can come.


--- St Augustine, Sermon on 1 John.

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Sing it: Everybody's got a hungry heart...

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