Jan 31, 2016

Prayer of St. Francis (21)

O Divine Master, Grant that I may not so much seek
To be loved as to love. (2)

“You shall love your neighbor
as yourself”
                                     Mark 12:31

We will continue to look at the line “O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek To be loved as to love.” from the Prayer of St. Francis, and our ability to receive Love.

Self Love

Love is a two way street. First we have to learn to love ourselves, for as Jesus said, we can at best, love another only as much as we love ourselves. And let’s face it: we are our own worst critic, blaming ourselves for all the world ills, deep within us. Even though sometimes our ego demands others praise us and acknowledge us as something super, in truth we need the affirmation of others to hide the deep insecurity we hold within. WE know how much we fail ourselves and what we wish we could do; WE know how many times our thoughts and/or our actions are hurting others; and WE know how many times we hide in fear of others and fail to do the action that we know is right.
So how can we love ourselves? What right do we have to love ourselves? And if we cannot love ourselves, how do we follow this command to love others, and not demand love from others to fill the lack of love in our very selves?
I can promise this: if we follow the actions prescribed in the Prayer of St. Francis, we will begin to move in the direction that leaves us open to see that we may be, just may be, moving in the direction that proves that we can love and are lovable, even to our own eyes.
Look at your life: following this Prayer, you have brought love to those hated, pardon where there is injuries, faith to those in the pain of doubt, hope to those in despair, light to the darkness, joy to the sad, understanding to the misunderstood. Is this not a life worth admiring? Have you not brought love to others? Therefore, is there not reason to start to love your self? Can you see the Love that is always present in you from your Font of Wisdom?
You are Loved by the greatest Love of all time – God. If God can Love you with unadulterated infinite Love that never wavers or stops, how can you not begin to Love yourself with some hope for the future?
But, you say, I have seen how I fail so many times to give that love to others in all the ways mentioned: I have failed others, I have failed to love others and lashed out at them in anger; and the list goes on and on as we lash ourselves with the long list of what we have failed to do.
But God does not look at all the times you have failed to love another, no, God looks at the times you did love another, and if God only looks at the those times (remember the prodigal son and how his father loved him?), what right do we have to judge ourselves more harshly that God judges ourselves? God is Love, and only love, and every time we do an act of Love for another, no matter how small, even if only once in our life, that is the Love that God sees in us, and that should be, must be, the Love that we see in ourselves.
We can look at these actions in our life; and see that the root of love, even the great Love, exists in our life in rich form worthy of loving ourselves in truth, and understanding that, indeed, we are worthy of the Love of God, and thus worthy to give this Love away to others.
Next we will look this line in light of the power of Love that we receive by giving Love away.

“We accept the love
We think we deserve.”
                                   Stephen Chbosky

Questions to Ponder

Can you make a list of the loving things you did this past week? Note how many times you acted in a selfless manner when the occasion arose.
Let the good actions you do each day mark the occasion of loving others in a way that allows you to love yourself.

Meditation

“Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
It is in dying to self that we are born to eternal life.”
If this meditation post has been helpful, I would appreciate it if you would pass it on or share it.