And his love covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8). I praise your name for your mercy and faithfulness. Is this me? He was ordained a Catholic priest in 2003 and earned his doctorate in moral theology in 2010. We will likely keep comparing ourselves against the low-bar of one another, and often feeling like we’re doing relatively okay, until we invite the Spirit of Jesus to examine us. Dan Burke. Purgatory: Answering Seven Key Questions About The Church's Teachings. Whatever it takes, Lord, increase my capacity to love until I love you with all my heart, soul, strength, and mind, and love my neighbor as I love myself. Then desire conceives and brings forth sin, and when sin. And it helps me see the log of love-lack in my own eye, and my desperate need for God’s help to remove it. But none of us will prayerfully press into loving God with our entire beings, or loving our neighbor as ourselves, until we see clearly our profound lack of such love — how much we need to be filled with the Spirit of Christ in order to love like Christ. We have no higher priorities in life than loving God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind, as well as loving our neighbor as we love ourselves (Luke 10:27). He is also continuing his writing apostolate with online retreats at www.RCSpirituality.org and questions and answers on the spiritual life at www.RCSpiritualDirection.com. But that will produce the prayerful desperation that brings the growth. His love is not irritable or resentful, does not insist on its own selfish way, rejoices only in the truth, and bears all things (1 Corinthians 13:4–7). 4All the kings of earth will praise you, LORD, 6The LORD is on high, but cares for the lowlyb. But we can start the day by turning our hearts to our dear Lord Jesus. We can say, “Lord Jesus, I turn my heart to You this morning. He also served as the English-language press liaison for the Vatican’s 2005 Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist. I. I thank you, Lord, with all my heart; a. in the presence of the angels * to you I sing. So, Christians are meant to be the most love-focused, love-pursuing, love-dispensing people on the face of the earth. You shall love the Lord with all your mind, With all your heart, with all your soul, your mind and strength. © Copyright 2020 Catholic Exchange. Nevertheless, you can also attend to the heart directly. Oh, how we all need the merciful exposing spotlight of the Holy Spirit to illumine our levels of love. This kind of desperation — utter helplessness — is what drives us to prayer. And so, what we choose to look at, think about, and daydream about will affect the desires that grow and mature in our heart. And we need to intentionally stir up those thoughts all the time. Jesus made this clear so many times: On Prayer: “Then Jesus told them a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary…” (Luke 18:1); “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you.” (John 15:7), On the Eucharist: “Jesus said to them, ‘Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. The act is not a private transaction but a public act that stirs the surrounding nations to praise God’s greatness and care for the people (Ps 138:4–6). John Bartunek, LC, S.Th.D, received his BA in History from Stanford University in 1990. They are there to make us desperate for God. And Jesus said this kind of love would be the distinguishing mark of his followers, the most remarkable thing about them (John 13:35). We should not waste one more day allowing anything to impede our pursuit of those two loves. He comes from an evangelical Christian background and became a member of the Catholic Church in 1991. His love is patient and kind; it’s not envious, boastful, arrogant, or rude. This is a good question, though perhaps not the best way to ask it. The devil, agitating our fallen nature and the fallen world in which we live, will try to monopolize our attention with images, ideas, thoughts, and invitations that can lure us into self-absorption and eventually into destructive self-indulgence. This is my desire you to honor you Lord, with all my heart I worship you All I have within me I give You praise All that I adore is in you. The heart expresses itself through the other three modes that Jesus identifies in the greatest commandment: loving God with all our soul, mind, and strength.