The magnificent truth about love.

You can’t touch it but you can feel it.

You can’t hear it but you can listen to it.

You can’t see it but you can observe it.

One of the most powerful forces the human body can feel. It can bring you to the height of happiness and the depths of sadness. L O V E.

If you’ve been to a wedding you are probably familiar with 1 Corinthians 13: 4 -8:

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

You may have heard these verses numerous times, but how often have you actually thought about them?

Love is patient. 

Love IS patient. In fact love takes more patience than anything else in our lives. Being patient is hard, but love is sometimes hard, too. But it’s worth it.

Love is kind.

Tonight after mass had ended I turned around to pick up my coat and caught sight of the couple who was seated a few pews behind me. The husband picked up his wife’s coat, waited for her to wrap her scarf, adjust her sweater and put on her hat. He stood there waiting for at least 30 seconds as she gathered all of her belongings and was ready for the final layer, her coat. Her husband was ready with her coat perfectly positioned for her arms to slide into. She buttoned her coat, he quickly put his on. As they made their way out of the pew he let her stand in front of him as they genuflected and when they turned to walk out he took her hand in his. It was such a simple series of actions, but it was definitely love.

Love is the simple gestures; love is waiting for someone even though you could be tending to your own needs. Love is letting someone go first. Love is holding hands. Love is being there, ready and waiting. Because love is simple.

  

It is not self-seeking.

Love is not about our needs, our ego, or our benefit. Love is always selfless. There is no expectation, no ulterior motives, no quid pro quo. We love for the sole benefit of someone else, we love because we can.

Love is meant to be shared, it’s meant to be communicated, it’s meant to create movement and in the process it moves us.

Love does not thrive in a grey scale world. It lives in the light. It is definitive. It is bold. It’s either there or it isn’t, there is no middle ground.

Love doesn’t require a turquoise box and a white ribbon. Love doesn’t require red roses because it’s Valentine’s Day. Love doesn’t require fancy things because it’s not a thing. Love is a verb, it requires us to act, it requires us to do, and even if it does require us to be patient or to wait, we know that ultimately that period of stillness will be followed by action. Love that is a noun is like taking a flower ready to bloom and burying it in a box. It sits there and the beauty is never shared with anyone. But when we allow it to bloom and allow it be a verb we see its full potential and we see something magnificent.

Love is always bestowed as a gift - freely, willingly and without expectation. We don't love to be loved; we love to love.

-Leo Buscaglia

Love is when the other person's happiness is more important than your own.

-H. Jackson Brown, Jr.