Love

Love: Agape, Charity.

This is a self-giving love. Through the Fruit of love, we are being invited to participate in God’s unconditional love.

We learn to live from Jesus’s commandment, “to love another as I have loved you.” This kind of loving is much more demanding. We accept people just as they are because Chris has accepted us just as we are–with our length list of limitations.

From: Thomas Keating, Fruits and Gifts of the Spirit, Lantern Books, 2000

A Simple Breath-Prayer of Love

Below is a breath prayer I learned a while ago and continue to find it a practice of deep nourishment. It lets us inhale the life essence of a Fruit, and then exhale it into the atmosphere around us.

• Take a few gentle breaths and relax your thoughts, your emotions, and any tension in your body.

• Breathe in love. Allow its energy and presence to fill you. Let this spiritual nutrient into your physical being, as well as your spirit and soul.

• As you breathe in love, feel it nourishing you and feeding you.

• Then breathe out love, letting it fill the atmosphere around you. Feel yourself sharing that love with all that is around you.

• Repeat this for several breaths, letting yourself be nourished by love while simultaneously nourishing the world. When you’re ready, rest in stillness for a few moments before returning to your day.

When we breathe in love, we remember we’re held by Divine Love; when we breathe it out, we become a conduit of that same grace.