The beginning of love is the will to let those we love be perfectly _x000D_ themselves.
Interpretation
True love involves allowing others to be their authentic selves.
This quote by Thomas Merton highlights the essence of love as a genuine acceptance and encouragement for individuals to fully express their true selves without fear of judgment. It emphasizes that love is not possessive or controlling, but rather liberating and supportive, enabling loved ones to flourish in their authenticity.
In practice
In a romantic relationship, you can use this quote to encourage your partner to pursue their passions.
The devil is no fool. He can get people feeling about heaven the way they ought to feel about hell. He can make them fear the means of grace the way they do not fear sin. And he does so, not by light but by obscurity, not by realities but by shadows; not by clarity and substance, but by dreams and the creatures of psychosis. And men are so poor in intellect that a few cold chills down their spine will be enough to keep them from ever finding out the truth about anything.
Our vocation is not simply to be, but to work together with God in the creation of our own life, our own identity, our own destiny....To work out our identity in God.
Conscience is the light by which we interpret the will of God in our own lives.
You are made in the image of what you desire.
But if you want to identify me, ask me not where I live, or what I like to eat, or how I comb my hair, but ask me what I think I am living for.
I have the immense joy of being man, a member of a race in which God Himself became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now that I realize what we all are. And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.
No amount of scholastic attainment, of able and profound exposition of brilliant and stirring eloquence can atone for the absence of a deep impassioned sympathetic love for human souls.
The person who does not decide to love forever will find it very difficult to really love for even one day.
The Christmas season reminds us that a demonstration of religion is always much better than a definition of it...especially in front of the kids._x000D_ _x000D_ Perhaps the best Yuletide decorations are to be wreathed in smiles and wrapped in hugs._x000D_ _x000D_ The miracle of Christmas is that a baby can be so decisive._x000D_ _x000D_ It is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty founder was a child himself.
So if we love someone, we should train in being able to listen. By listening with calm and understanding, we can ease the suffering of another person. [True Love. A Practice for Awakening the Heart.]
Love is like ice in the hands of children.
Where, with your one rose you can buy hundreds of rose gardens?
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