Beloved

I was feeling down today, that sense of feeling of being unlovable and unseen. This helped me remember the love letter I don’t have to dream of, the love letter that is already there; for you and me both.

Dirty diapers and all

 I’ve been thinking about babies recently. Why are they so lovable? They cry, they can’t talk, they are demanding and their diapers can really really be stinky. Though the thought of asking a loving parent if they love this child of theirs, and with no hesitation, they respond with “absolutely!”

Are these all graces? Are these part of the mystery of love? Is it just a mathematical ratio, emphasizing that their preciousness outweighs their limitations? Is this the same explanation for general human love?

What brings for the conviction to love a soul completely like a loving parent does a child?

“Love of is of its nature reciprocal: he who knows how to receive knows also how to give.

We love the person complete with all his or her virtues and faults, and up to a point independently of those virtues and in spite of those faults. The strength of such a love emerges most clearly when the beloved person stumbles, when his or her weaknesses or even sins come into the open. One who truly loves does not then withdraw his love, but loves all the more, loves in full consciousness of the other's shortcomings and faults, and without in the least approving them.”

-St. John Paul II