We must pray to God and ask God to give us the courage to love. -Saint Teresa of Calcutta

This week I am happy to share the below reflection from author Felicia Murrellin, who invites us to slow down and recognize God’s love in our lives. It’s a lofty aspiration yet it is one that is within reach. Blessings on your week ahead!

Experiencing Love

God is in our midst, a God who exults over us with joy, who quiets us in love, who rejoices over us with shouts of joy and gathers those who grieve (see Zephaniah 3:17–18).  

But how do we get to the place where this is the God we see, the God we encounter and know, the God who frames our imaginings when we think of God?  

Stillness, perhaps. Contemplative prayer, maybe.  

For me, Divine Love is unveiled through communion, connection, and acts of living that create openhearted wonder.  

Consistent engagement with spiritual practices often invites us into such spaciousness, creating access points for us to become more consciously aware of Divine Love’s kenotic expression in us and through us.  

To that end, all spiritual practices have this purpose—to allow us to touch the depths of our inner selves and to live a generous life of participation with Divine Love in absolute openheartedness; to move from what we know in our heads about God to living and moving and having our being in God; to be present in this life, to the world around us, and to Divine Love.  

What is true about God? God is Love (1 John 4:16).  

The experience of Love loving us allows us to feel and then to see. As Love invades our numbed-out parts, awakening us from cloudy misperception to Truth, we are invited to heal and to believe what Love believes about us, to trust in the benevolence and kind intentions of Love. Trust flourishes in the soil of Love. And there, our God image transforms.  

We don’t just decide to see God as loving; Love is who God is. To encounter Divine Love is to encounter our deepest self.