Blog # 146 Self-love

Blog # 146 Self-love Jesus gave as the second greatest Comandment "Love your neighbor as yourself. " That presumes we love ourselves. Through the years since my ordination to the priesthood it has always been a very special blessing to meet people on a significant level of personal faith sharing and friendship. When we share our faith experiences we share a very personal part of ourselves. It is a special joy to know and love others in an unselfish way. It should be a special joy to know and love ourselves in an unselfish way. God knows us as so valuable to Himself and loves us so deeply that He sent His Beloved Son to give His life for us as a sign of God's love for everyone. Part of the task of faith is to discover or remind ourselves of this. We are to learn to love in such a way that even we are convinced of the truth of this 'conviction' of God with regard to us personally. We are valuable to God. We are loved. Here is a prayer in response to these few thoughts. God Our Father, You give us many gifts to enjoy each day. Most obvious is your gift of nature. We do not have to look long or far to see Your handiwork and experience Your greatness. The sun, the moon, flowers birds water seeds all tell us of You, Your goodness generosity and Your love You give us Yourself, dear Lord, in prayer, in sacred places, in our faith, in Your Church, in our conscience, and in the words and wisdom of Scripture. But you give us the gift of people too - and these are among Your greatest gifts. I see all persons among Your very special gifts, O Lord. Some of them are wrapped beautifully, in kindness, generosity, patience, and love. They are attractive even when we first see them. Some are in ordinary wrappings, but they are nonetheless special to You and to me. Some persons are loosely wrapped and it is easy to get inside. Others are more tightly wrapped and more difficult to open. But the wrapping is not the gift, It is easy to make the mistake of thinking otherwise. Within each of us there is a beautiful 'image' of Yourself. I am a person; I am a gift too. A gift to myself first of all. Sometimes I ask myself if I have really looked inside the wrappings. Perhaps I have never or seldom seen the wonderful gift that I am. Could it be there is something inside the wrapping other than what I think is there? Different? More? or less? All of Your gifts are beautiful, Lord. Help me to see the wonderful beauty in them all. Help me to see myself as a gift of Your love to those around me. Then for them I would be happy to perfect myself and try to grow in holiness, goodness, patience, generosity, and love. Help me Father, to make this the task I identify and choose for myself each morning so that I can honestly be identified with Jesus in His self-giving love, throughout His life in history, and in me, but especially on the Cross and in his glorious Resurrection, throughout the time and with the unique plan and energy You will provide for me today. Amen! This is a story about four 'people' named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody. There was an important job to be done and Everybody was asked to do it. Everybody was sure Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody's job. Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.