LOVE_FlipBook

6 S aint Paul’s “hymn to charity” in 1 Corinthians 13 has to be one of the most famous and most quoted parts of the entire Bible. Love is patient, love is kind. Love is not jealous …. We might stumble over the rest if pressed to repeat it from memory, but hearing it read aloud is like hearing a song we have known since our youth, one that never grows old. Unsurprisingly, cheerful young brides and grooms frequently select this beautiful text as one of their wed- ding readings. With hands clasped and butterflies in their stomachs, the soon-to-be husband and wife sit beaming as an aunt or an uncle or another beloved rela- tive is honored with reading those sacred words. Saint Paul’s words speak to all of us, in fact, in every vocation and at every moment of our existence. They help us understand concretely what it will look like as we flesh out day-to-day Christ’s great commandment to love and to abide in love—which, after all, was not an airy abstraction! INTRODUCTION

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