1. Prayer
2. Meditation
https://youtu.be/uxjh2V1zsrA?si=eyWoUSTKsWEuHuxd
3. Song
https://youtu.be/iItKGT7WFDw?si=KerR3XgBkVtO3VHs
4. Narrative
One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked, “Which is the first of all the commandments?” Jesus replied, “The first is this: …‘You shall love the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” —Mark 12:28–31
In this homily, Father Richard considers Jesus’ response to the question, “Which is the first of all the commandments?”:
I don’t think any of us really know how to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. We might want to love like that, but how do we put all the parts of ourselves together and actually do it? It takes our whole life to figure out what Jesus’ words might even mean. Then Jesus says, “You must love your neighbor as you love yourself” (Mark 12:31). Do any of us do that? Do we really love other people? Do we really give them as much attention as we give to ourselves? I don’t think so. We need to recognize, of course, that Jesus does imply that you must love yourself. If we hate ourselves, then how can we possibly know how to love our neighbor? We have to know proper and appropriate love of self, but we cannot stop there.
Imagine how different the world would be if we just obeyed that one commandment—to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. It would be the most mighty political, social upheaval imaginable. The world would be radically different if human beings really treated other people as they would like to be treated. We can take this as a simple rule of thumb: What would I want from that person right now? What would be helpful for me to receive? Well, there’s our commandment. There’s our obligation to do to others!
It’s so simple that we can see why we put all our attention on the Ten Commandments, or the hundreds of other regulations culture and religion place on us. It’s much easier to worry about things that keep us “pure,” so to speak, but are of little consequence.
I think the scribe is asking a very good question. After all is said and done, it comes down to loving God and loving our neighbor—and that implies loving ourselves. If I said this without quoting Jesus, I could be accused of oversimplifying or ignoring some of the important commandments, but thank God Jesus said it first. He taught that it’s all about love, and in the end, that’s all we’re all going to be judged for. Did we love? Did we love life? Did we love ourselves? Did we love God and did we love our neighbor? Concentrating on that takes just about our whole lifetime and we won’t have much time left over to worry about what other people are doing or not doing. Our job is to love God, love ourselves, and love our neighbor.
Reference:
Adapted from Richard Rohr, “613 Commandments Reduced to Two,” homily, November 3, 2012.
YOU’RE WORTHY OF LOVE
https://www.thepracticeco.com/devotions/youre-worthy-of-love
Your body, heart, and spirit need to stand in your power to access and engage their full and authentic capacity.
I know sometimes you think that it would be easier to stand in your power if you looked like them, or had their experience, or access to those resources, or were educated to this level, or had more happiness in your childhood, or if that hadn't happened to you, and, well, if you were an entirely different person.
'I could stand in my power if (fill in the blank)...' is a place we've all been.
Here's the thing: believing that you can't stand with what you've got and what you've been given will have you on your ass in no time. And the only way to get back up from this kind of fall is self-love and acceptance.
Which isn’t easy. Self-love and acceptance can be challenging because we've all done things we are ashamed of, things we knew were wrong, things that have hurt others, things that we would not accept from another person.
Self-love and acceptance are difficult because when life cracks us open, when confronted with ourselves, it's sometimes hard to love what we find.
Self-love and acceptance are hard because we've been taught systematically by some factions of religion, consumerism, pop culture, politics and policies, and more, that we simply are not worthy of self-love and acceptance. And worse, that to love and accept ourselves would leave us unhinged and abandoned to our own evil inclinations and desires.
But dear one, is that working for you? A life disassociating your heart and body and mind from your own love and acceptance? Self-hatred and non-acceptance don't make you holy. It's a conduit of pain and trauma that makes you lonely and sad.
Mark Twain said:
"The worst loneliness is to not be comfortable with yourself."
Rupi Kaur said:
"How you love yourself is
how you teach others
to love you."
Brené Brown said:
"True belonging only happens when we present our authentic, imperfect selves to the world, our sense of belonging can never be greater than our level of self-acceptance."
Richard Rohr said:
"Love is not something you do; love is someone you are. It is your True Self. Love is where you came from and love is where you're going. It's not something you can buy. It's not something you can attain. It is the presence of God within you, called the Holy Spirit—or what some theologians name uncreated grace. We can't diminish God's love for us. What we can do, however, is learn how to believe it, receive it, trust it, allow it, and celebrate it, accepting Trinity's whirling invitation to join in the cosmic dance...
[buckle in, because this could change your life]
The very nature of God is to seek out the deepest possible communion and friendship with every last creature on this earth. That's the job description of God. That's what it's all about. And the only thing that can keep you out of this divine dance is fear and doubt, or any self-hatred. What would happen in your life—right now—if you accepted what God has created and even allowed? Suddenly, this is a very safe universe. You have nothing to be afraid of. God is for you. God is leaping toward you! God is on your side, honestly more than you are on your own."
Mindful Prompt: You will not become overrun by evil if you let love well up inside of you for your own life. Love is already in you, willing you to stand, wanting to heal you - set the flow moving.
Continued in the series "Stand In Your Power", this week with a subscription in the App.
Written by Liz Milani.
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