Love of God and love of neighbor

Christian charity:

Love of God and love of neighbor...

"Remember, My child and My children, no matter what course you proceed upon, if you do not have charity for your neighbor, you have stopped in your progress to sanctity." - Our Lady of the Roses, May 20, 1978

The following is an excerpt from the book, Love One Another by Louis Colin, C.SS.R.

One becomes a man in the fuller sense by being a Christian. Is it any great loss if the heart throws aside some worn-out coverings? What emotional depth, what richness of feeling, what overflowing of delicate, generous kindness are found in the souls of the saints! What fine types of humanity are embodied in a St. Vincent de Paul, or a little Thérèse of Lisieux! Was not this giant of charity the most human of men? Human love, when born in a Christian heart, becomes purer by purging itself of all egotistical alloys.

No, charity does not kill love; it vivifies it, elevates it; makes it divine. Far from drying up the wellsprings of our affections, charity multiplies and deepens them. If sometimes it bruises the poor human heart, it is only in order to incite it to heroic devotion. Suffering is always fruitful, above all in love. What a fine plantation may be reared in a ploughed, harrowed heart whence all the mad weeds have been torn out!

Charity, therefore, is the most excellent of all our affective powers. "Excellent," says St. Francis de Sales, "because it comes from God, tends to God and is founded on God; excellent because it will last for ever in God." (Introduction to the Devout Life)

From whatever point of view we look upon it, charity appears as a theological virtue in the plenary sense of the word. It is divine in its source, in itself, in its object and in its end.

It is one of the most beautiful creations of the supernatural order, the Creator's masterpiece, as it were. At baptism, we received a new heart, cor novum (Ezech. 36:26), formed by God Himself.

The Holy Ghost, the Spirit of Love, came down into our souls, so that in Him, through Him, and like Him, we loved our neighbor. "On earth we have the Holy Spirit so that we might love our neighbor." (De Dilectione Dei et Proximi, Ch. VII)

To love our brethren divinely, we needed a divine power, which is charity, a divine heart, modelled on the very heart of the Almighty, an intimate and real participation in His personal Love. In creating us, ex Deo nati (John 1:13), God communicates something of His being, and allows us to enter into the mystery of His Trinitarian life. Having become His children, gods ourselves, Dii estis (Ps. 81:6), we may think, will and love and act in a manner resembling God.

The Father clothes us in His holiness; the Word, the enlightener, makes us children of light, filii lucis. The Holy Ghost, our heart's guest, dulcis hospes, enkindles such a flame within us that it sets heaven and earth, God and humanity, all alight.

"To love as one should, it is necessary to have a divine reality, a divine power. These God places in us. It is Christ whom charity loves in a man; it is for the Father, in sight of the Father, that she loves; she loves by the power of the Holy Spirit, that nameless, limitless love with which the Father and Son love each other. The Holy Spirit is the principle of love by which we love our brothers rightly." (Gay, Vertus chrétienees, "De la charité envers le prochain," Part I)

God's heart beats within our breast. It is through this contact, by its effulgence and with the same rhythm, that our Christian heart loves at one and the same time our heavenly Father and our earthly brothers. For we have not two hearts, two loves: one for God and the other for man. It is with the same heart and with an identical affection that we love them all. "It is with this heart that we love one another and, with the same, love God." (St. Augustine, In Evang. Joan. Trac. 87, 1)

"The sight of light and the sight of objects illuminated by that light are of the same nature. In the same way, love of God and love of neighbor, insofar as they are clothed with divinity, are of the same nature.

"Love of Me and love of neighbor," said God to St. Catherine of Siena, 'are one and the same thing.'" (Dialogue, Ch. VII, 5)

"Charity towards God and charity towards our brothers are not two distinct or sister virtues; they are one and the same." (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, II-II, Q. 25, Art. 1)

And how true is this reflection of a religious, writing to console her mother upon her departure to Africa: "Because God is my all, you will lose me the less. You are part of my love for Jesus." (Journal of Sister Marie of St. Anselm, White Sister of Our Lady of Africa, Cf., La Vie spirituelle, Feb., 1923, p. 531)

Again, St. Augustine says there are two commandments, but only one charity: "One charity and two precepts ... with that charity with which we love our neighbor, we also love God." (Sermon CCLXV, No. 9) Two roses on one stalk: the same root, the same sap, the same perfume.

In a word, what we love in our neighbor is not exactly the weak and perishable man, but the immortal child of the Father, the living member of Jesus, the co-heir of heaven. Beyond the veil of this poor mortality, our faith has perceived God. What we love, then, is both our brother in God, and God in our brother. Whoever truly loves his friend loves God in his friend. "Learn to love the Creator in His creatures, the worker in his work, and do not let things made by Him for your use make your forget Him." (St. Augustine, Enarrat. in Ps. XXXIX)

"My child and My children, if I could take you with Me and give you the eyes to see and the ears to hear, you'll understand why I have cried out to you in the past to protect your soul, your children's souls, your families, and accept as a victim soul the graces given to you from Heaven to reach out with to save others. For charity and love of heart knows no bounds, no restrictions, but in giving does one really bring forth the true meaning of love." - Our Lady of the Roses, June 18, 1981

Our Lady of the Roses awesome Bayside Prophecies... https://www.tldm.org/../Bayside/
These prophecies came from Jesus, Mary, and the saints to Veronica Lueken at Bayside, NY, from 1968 to 1995.

PURPOSE OF LIFE
"While you are upon earth you are there to do honor and glory to your God in Heaven. You must know Him, love Him, and serve Him in this world, so that you will be happy with Him forever in the next." - Our Lady, June 1, 1978

FEAR
"Yes, My child, you will feel faint at the knowledge of the existence of hell. Better that mankind has fear of the Eternal Father if he does not have love! For now many are in a void of spirit. They neither know their God, nor do they care to know their God. " - Our Lady, March 29, 1975

FIRST COMMANDMENT
"Any priest that tells you that you must love your neighbor first and God second, he is not a true man of God nor is he a true Roman Catholic priest, nor is he a true minister of any denomination. Because the first Commandment of God the Father is: 'I am the Lord thy God, thou shall not have strange gods before Me.'" - Our Lady, June 18, 1982

TRUE MEANING
"But so few know the true meaning of love. Love is in giving. Love is in caring. But love above all is God, your God. For no man knows the full meaning of love until he has reached out and become a man of God, a true child of the light; for then he will also be a keeper of the eternal flame, the Holy Spirit." - Jesus, June l8, 1981

EXAMPLE
"I speak to all the children of the world. You have been given armor and graces to rescue your brothers and sisters in this battle. Do not waste these graces, but multiply them. Disperse among the world a fine example of charity and faith." - St. Paul, July 1, 1973

EVEN DEATH
"I consign you, My children, all who hear your Mother's voice, as bearers of light. Go forward with Jesus, My Son, as your confidence. Approach your brothers and sisters, for what greater glory, what greater love can a man give to one another but to even face death to save him." - Our Lady, May 14, 1977

SANCTITY
"Remember, My child and My children, no matter what course you proceed upon, if you do not have charity for your neighbor, you have stopped in your progress to sanctity." - Our Lady, May 20, 1978

TRUE LOVE
"Pray, My children, for your priests, your bishops, your cardinals. Too few pray for them, for in their awe and their knowledge, they believed in the past, My children, that these Hierarchy had a special passport to Heaven. No, My children, they have a human nature also, and human frailties, and must be protected by prayer and penance and sacrifice, and this means the prayer, penance and sacrifice of others also, for them. In your charity of heart, in your love of human nature that We hear man speaking of as he falls into the errors of modernism and humanism-true love lies in prayers and sacrifice for an individual, for when you come over the veil, I assure you, it is only love and prayers that can follow you." - Jesus, May 20, 1978

Directives from Heaven... https://www.tldm.org/directives/directives.htm

D20 - Importance of Prayer (Part 1) PDF
D21 - Importance of Prayer (Part 2) PDF
D31 - Love of God PDF
D32 - Love of Neighbor PDF
D78 - Charity PDF

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