7 LOVE: 100 beautiful and inspirational meditations Love: just four little letters, one brief syllable. If it can be agreed that an unfortunate tendency of our time has been the reduction of love to mere sentiment, the Church—guardian and teacher of divine revelation that she is—continues to proclaim to the world what true love means, and what it must always mean if it is to be real: the willingness to sacrifice; the willingness to place the true good of another above one’s own preferences, comforts, or pleasures; the willingness to forgive and persevere even when it is challenging or the world would say it’s time to give up; the willingness to love even until death. Do we need a still more vivid image? God himself has given us one: Jesus on the cross. Jesus with his pure and sacred Heart. Jesus, love incarnate. The meditations in this book have been drawn from the rich treasury of the Church’s tradition, from the first centuries of Christianity up to our very day. We hope that these texts will bring inspiration, consolation, and peace to all who read them—to all of us who seek to understand and embrace the sweet demands of love in our own lives. For that one little word says a lot. It is the word that defines God himself, for God is love (1 Jn 4:16). So, dear friends, happy reading! Fr. Sebastian White, o.p. Editor-in-Chief, MAGNIFICAT
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NzMzNzY=