Villa La Paz Newsletter September 2021
Love: a deep and tender feeling of affection for or attachment or devotion to a person or persons, a feeling of brotherhood or good will towards other people
Webster’s New World Dictionary
Thirds College Edition
Sometimes, in this troubled world of ours, we forget that love is all around us. We imagine the worst of other people and withdraw into our own shells. But try this simple test. Stand still in any crowded place and watch the people around you. Within a very short time, you will begin to see love, and you will see it over and over and over. A young mother talking to her child, a couple laughing together as they walk by, an older man holding the door for a stranger. Small signs of love are everywhere. The more you will look, the more you will see. Love is literally everywhere. We are surrounded by love.
Indigenous Choctaw Elder and
Episcopal Bishop Steven Charleston
The world tells us to seek success, power, and money. God tells us to seek humility, service and love.
Pope Francis
A child without food and shoes was asked, “If God loved you, would’t you have food and shoes?” “God told someone,” the youngster replied, “but they forgot.”
George Buttrick
In the twilight of life, God will not judge us on our earthly possessions and human successes, but on how well we have loved.
St. John of the Cross
God and the little boy continued walking along the beach. The little boy said to God, “Today my mother told me and my brother that she loved us and later in the day she told my father that she loved him. Are there different types of love between children and parents and husbands and wives?”
God answered, “All love has its source in Me since I am love, but yes, there are different types of love. There is affectionate love that occurs between friends and family members. There is familiar love between parents and children. There is romantic love, the love between your mother and father and, because of that love, you and your brothers and sisters were born. There is also self love, when a person loves himself, respects himself and recognizes his self-worth. And then there is selfless love, called agape. This is the highest level of love. It is given without expecting anything in return. It is unconditional, given without regards to a person’s talents, intelligence, looks or accomplishments. It is the love I have for you and my creation. It does not depend on how good you are or your other qualities. It is based on the fact that you are my beloved son and nothing that you can do or say will increase or decrease my love for you. You are mine. I loved you before the world began and I will love you into eternity. And I ask nothing in return, only that you return my love and care for and love one another. One of my priests, Father Richard Rohr, stated it very well. “Once you say ‘I love you,’ you stand foolish and exposed until the other says, ‘I love you, too.’ Such is the fate of God.” “Wow,” intoned the little boy, “but what about the evil people in the world, who rob, murder, start wars and result in the deaths of many people. How can you love them?” “Again,” said God, “My love is selfless and unconditional. I love everyone equally, no matter what their behavior, no matter how they act. I, of course, do not approve of the evil and harm caused by such persons and it displeases me but I continue to love them. I cannot do otherwise since, as I told you before, I am love. By experiencing my love hopefully they will change and begin to do good.”
What a simple solution to the problems that afflict the world: love. So simple and yet so difficult. Our first impulse is not to love selflessly, unconditionally. The externals, unfortunately, influence our love. It is hard to love an unkempt, malodorous panhandler because of the externals that grab our attention. We have to strip away the externals and see into the heart of that person, where the Spirit of God dwells. The indwelling Spirit of God confers a dignity to that person that belies the externals. He, like us, is a child of God, beloved by Him. We all have the same Father who loves us equally and unconditionally and nothing that we can say or do can diminish or remove that love. Isn’t that incredible? Can we fully grasp what that means? Within each of us dwells the Spirit of God, which makes us one with God and each other. Anything that separates us, race, language, skin color, religion is an illusion of our own creation. This oneness with God and each other enjoins us to love unconditionally, to ignore the externals, and see the other person as a tabernacle of the indwelling Spirit of God.
From faith we understand the unity that exists among all human beings as children of God. Regardless of our differences we have been created out of love by the same God, and that creates an inviolable bond between us.
Father Pablo Migone
We must proclaim the truth that all life is one and that we are all of us tied together. Therefore it is mandatory that we work for a society in which the least person can find refuge and refreshment. You must lay your lives on the altar of social change so that wherever you are, the Kingdom of God is at hand!
Howard Thurman,
Commencement Address,
Garrett Biblical Institute, 1943
The past year and a half has been difficult and unprecedented and has tried our faith. But out of the evil inflicted on so many by the pandemic goodness has flowed. Health care workers giving their all, emotionally and physically, to their patients; volunteers at food banks working to exhaustion to slake hunger; people taking food, medicine and other necessities to shut-ins; all possible through small and hidden acts of love, proving that out of evil God can bring good. Despite strict quarantine measures COVID entered our home. Eleven children and 7 staff members were sickened. All pulled through and are now recovering. Through love in action we witnessed an outpouring of food, medical supplies and other necessities along with concern for the wellbeing of the children.
We are sincerely grateful to you for your support and prayers. We love you and wish you God’s peace.
