CMMB: Your Weekly Reflection in Prayer 8/26/2012

“Love consists in this: not that we have loved God, but that He has loved us and has sent His Son as an offering for our sins. Beloved, if God has so loved us, we must have the same love for one another.”   1 John 4:10-11 August 26, 2012 Saint Augustine  Dear John, A spiritual master once wrote: “The big day in your spiritual life will come, not when you realize how much you love God, but how much God loves you.” This was certainly true of St. Augustine of Hippo in North Africa. Searching for truth, and after following a variety of philosophies, eventually he picked up the Bible. A passage from St. Paul on the love of God overpowering sin touched him deeply. He was baptized, became a priest, bishop and writer. He went on to write his famous autobiography, The Confessions. There he speaks frequently about the love of God. “Late have I loved You, O beauty, so ancient and so new. Too late have I loved You."  He writes later on that we can: “Love and do what you will.” (Dilige et quod vis fac.) This is not a license to do anything. Rather it reminds us that if we are caught up in and by the love of God, then we can only act out of love and in accord with the dictates of love. Lord, renew in Your Church the spirit You gave St. Augustine. Filled with his spirit may we thirst for You alone as the fountain of wisdom and seek You as the source of eternal love. We ask this through Christ our Lord.  Amen Rev. Peter Schineller, S.J., CMMB Board of Directors