The first act of love is always the giving of attention.
Interpretation
Showing love begins with genuinely paying attention to someone.
This quote emphasizes that the fundamental way to express love is through attentive listening and presence. True affection is often communicated not through grand gestures, but simply by being fully engaged with the person we care about, demonstrating that they are valued and important.
In practice
Using this quote in a relationship advice workshop.
The greatest issue facing the world today, with all its heartbreaking needs, is whether those who, by profession or culture, are identified as βChristiansβ will become disciples β students, apprentices, practitioners β of Jesus Christ, steadily learning from him how to live the life of the Kingdom of the Heavens into every corner of human existence.
So many people would like to have guidance from God because obviously, if you have a word from God, it's the best possible thing. But they don't relate that to life as a whole. Often they want guidance as a way of opting out of the responsibility of making decisions.
What is truly profound is thought to be stupid and trivial, or worse, boring, while what is actually stupid and trivial is thought to be profound. That is what it means to fly upside down.
The basic question 'will I obey Christ 's teaching?' is rarely taken as a serious issue. For example, to take one of Jesus' commands, that is relevant to contemporary life, I don't know of any church that actually teaches a church how to bless people who curse them, yet this is a clear command.
When I left home after graduating high school, I left as a migrant agricultural worker with a Modern Library edition of Plato in my duffel bag. It sounds kind of crazy, but I loved it. I loved the stuff. Before I knew there was a subject called philosophy, I loved it.
Few people arise in the morning as hungry for God as they are for cornflakes or toast and eggs.
To be loved at first sight, a man should have at the same time something to respect and something to pity in his face.
What was freely given to me, I freely give.
Mindful time spent with the person we love is the fullest expression of true love and real generosity.
Ulysses was not comely, but he was eloquent, Yet he fired two goddesses of the sea with love
People who love each other fully and truly are the happiest people in the world. They may have little, they may have nothing, but they are happy people. Everything depends on how we love one another.
There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.