Love

Passages

Every passage tagged with this emotion in the Vela corpus. Search the body text, narrow by source or register, click through to a book’s profile to see how the passage sits with the rest of the work.

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• From Quiet (2012)

  But there’s a hidden advantage to this inflexibility: it can motivate us to make tough but worthwhile career changes if we find ourselves compelled to speak too often about topics that leave us cold. There is no one more courageous than the person who speaks with the courage of his convictions. 10 THE COMMUNICATION GAP How to Talk to Members of the Opposite Type The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances; if there is any reaction, both are transformed . — CARL JUNG If introverts and extroverts are the north and south of temperament—opposite ends of a single spectrum—then how can they possibly get along? Yet the two types are often drawn to each other—in friendship, business, and especially romance. These pairs can enjoy great excitement and mutual admiration, a sense that each completes the other. One tends to listen, the other to talk; one is sensitive to beauty, but also to slings and arrows, while the other barrels cheerfully through his days; one pays the bills and the other arranges the children’s play dates. But it can also cause problems when members of these unions pull in opposite directions. Greg and Emily are an example of an introvert-extrovert couple who love and madden each other in equal measure. Greg, who just turned thirty, has a bounding gait, a mop of dark hair continually falling over his eyes, and an easy laugh. Most people would describe him as gregarious. Emily, a mature twenty-seven, is as self-contained as Greg is expansive. Graceful and soft-spoken, she keeps her auburn hair tied in a chignon, and often gazes at people from under lowered lashes. Greg and Emily complement each other beautifully. Without Greg, Emily might forget to leave the house, except to go to work. But without Emily, Greg would feel—paradoxically for such a social creature—alone. Before they met, most of Greg’s girlfriends were extroverts. He says he enjoyed those relationships, but never got to know his girlfriends well, because they were always “plotting how to be with groups of people.” He speaks of Emily with a kind of awe, as if she has access to a deeper state of being. He also describes her as “the anchor” around which his world revolves. Emily, for her part, treasures Greg’s ebullient nature; he makes her feel happy and alive. She has always been attracted to extroverts, who she says “do all the work of making conversation. For them, it’s not work at all.” The trouble is that for most of the five years they’ve been together, Greg and Emily have been having one version or another of the same fight. Greg, a music promoter with a large circle of friends, wants to host dinner parties every Friday—casual, animated get-togethers with heaping bowls of pasta and flowing bottles of wine.

• From Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex (1905)

  While the primacy of the genital zones is being established through the processes of puberty, and the erected penis in the man imperiously points towards the new sexual aim, i.e., towards the penetration of a cavity which excites the genital zone, the object-finding, for which also preparations have been made since early childhood, becomes consummated on the psychic side. While the very incipient sexual gratifications are still connected with the taking of nourishment, the sexual impulse has a sexual object outside its own body in his mother's breast. This object it loses later, perhaps at the very time when it becomes possible for the child to form a general picture of the person to whom the organ granting him the gratification belongs. The sexual impulse later regularly becomes autoerotic, and only after overcoming the latency period is there a resumption of the original relation. It is not without good reason that the suckling of the child at its mother's breast has become a model for every amour. The object-finding is really a re-finding.60

• From Scandalous Liaisons (2007)

  His heart raced in a desperate rhythm as he pictured Glenmoore finding Charlotte before he did. She’d promised to keep Gwen hidden in return for the use of the manse. Who knew how Glenmoore would react if he discovered the two had not only left, but were attending a large social function. The duke had discarded her clothes and jewelry, and spent the last three years ensuring that she had no life whatsoever. Hugh could only imagine the malicious temper that would goad a man to retaliate so viciously against a woman as kind and nurturing as Charlotte. “I’ve never seen you like this,” Lucien said softly. “Like what?” Huge snapped, his hands clenching into fists. “Like this. So concerned for another individual. Even when I wished to court Julienne, you weren’t this upset.” Hugh growled. “’Tis the damned Derbyshire water. I’ve never been the same since. I’m completely mad.” “Yes, dear brother, I believe you are quite mad for her.” Remington’s hand came to rest on his shoulder. “It was bound to happen sometime.” “What was bound to happen? What the devil are you rambling about?” “You’re in love with her.” Lucien offered a commiserating smile as Hugh gaped and then sagged into the abused stall door. “I know just how you feel. Someone had to tell me, too. I think men who are accustomed to lives of carnal indulgence find it harder to acknowledge how dependent their happiness can become on one woman.” Shaking his head, Hugh considered himself carefully. He’d known Charlotte for such a short time. How could it be possible that he loved her already? “How do you know?” he asked. “How can you be certain?” “When you are in love, you cannot stand to be away from your lover. Her touch, her smile, her attentions, are necessary things. You admire her above all other women; her faults are what you find charming. You want to care for her, protect her, be all things to her. Your desire for her stuns you, humbles you, and makes every other female pale in comparison.” “Good God.” Hugh scrubbed a hand over his face. “That sounds dreadful. And terrifying.” He dropped his hand and sighed. “And very much like the way I feel about Charlotte.” Patting him on the back, Lucien gestured toward the stable door. “Let’s go find her, shall we? Before you expire.” “Oh, it’s lovely,” Gwen breathed, running her hands reverently over the tiny pearls that encrusted the sleeves of Charlotte’s gown. “I’ve never seen a garment so fine.” Charlotte eyed her reflection with both longing and trepidation. The satin gown was a beautiful green that complimented her eyes and brought out the striking hue of her hair. “I couldn’t possibly—” “Nonsense,” Julienne cut in, resplendent in mauve-colored silk. “That dress looks much better on you than it ever has on me. You must wear it.”

• From Scandalous Liaisons (2007)

  “I told you I would help you without any obligation on your part.” He snorted. “But I suppose with your lack of faith in me, your surprise is to be expected.” She bit her lower lip and took a moment before she could reply. “I deserved that.” “Aren’t you departing today?” he asked gruffly. “Yes. Gwen and I shall be leaving in just a few hours.” “Godspeed.” He waved his hand over his shoulder in a gesture of dismissal. Charlotte’s chin lifted. His anger was her due, and she would bear it. She would pay whatever penance he required if he would find it in his heart to love her again. Taking a deep breath, she stepped closer. “Don’t you wish to say good-bye to me, Hugh?” “We’ve already done that.” “’Tis apparent you’ve said farewell, but I haven’t. Not properly.” That spun him about. He’d removed his cravat, leaving his throat bare and revealing a light dusting of golden hair in the slender opening of his shirt. His gaze raked from the top of her head to her slippered feet. She made no attempt to hide her longing or desire. He gave a bitter laugh. “Ah, I’m untrustworthy and have no self-restraint, but I can fuck well. What a relief to know I’m good for something.” Charlotte winced. “You are good for a great many things, Hugh La Coeur. And I am a thousand kinds of fool for making you doubt that.” His jaw tensed. “I’m not in the mood for your games.” She stepped close enough to smell him, a rich combination of the scent of his skin, horses, and the wild outdoors. His nostrils flared as she neared; his gaze narrowed. “I’ve missed you,” she whispered. She reached for his hand, but he backed away quickly, an action she took as a positive sign. He couldn’t be as indifferent as he appeared, or he wouldn’t fear her touch. “I didn’t believe Glenmoore. Not even for a moment. He simply provided the excuse to be a craven I was looking for.” “Get out,” he snarled. “I can’t.” She smiled sadly. “I need you, Hugh.” Shaking his head, he moved away. “No, you don’t. You can care for yourself; you don’t need anyone to rescue you. I, however, have discovered I require being needed. And for more than just my cock.” She stepped up to him and placed her hand against his back, flexing her fingers to absorb the feel of muscle and sinew beneath the billowing linen of his shirt. He tensed, and she rested her head against him, trusting him silently not to move away, for if he did she would stumble. “I do need you and want you. You’ve no notion of the torment I’ve suffered these last three nights without you. It’s not merely your body I missed. I’ve missed your voice, your laughter, your smile. I cannot go another day without those things in my life.”

• From Scandalous Liaisons (2007)

  “Charlotte.” His voice was a harsh rasp. “Don’t say any more. Just go.” She wrapped her arms around his lean waist, loving the feel of him. Splaying her hands across his abdomen, she felt the ridges of muscles shift as he groaned. Burying her face in his back, she breathed him in. “I want to link my future with yours, Hugh. I trust you to be the type of man I can depend upon.” His fingers laced with hers, and then he pulled her hands away, stepping out of her embrace. He turned to face her, his expression cold. “Why are you doing this?” There was no room left for pride or fear, not any longer. “Because I love you.” “Your feelings will pass.” “I don’t want them to pass.” “I’m sorry, I don’t know what more I can say to you.” Charlotte held out her hands to him. “Tell me you have no tender feelings for me and I’ll leave. I won’t trouble you again.” There was no hesitation. “I wish you well in your future endeavors, but that is the extent of my interest.” She winced as his words cut deep. “You’re lying.” Resolved, Hugh moved around Charlotte, then through the open doorway to the sitting room. His entire being ached for her and cried out for her touch, but he forced himself to leave her and kept his face impassive. There was too much at stake. She’d abandoned him so easily due to just a few cutting words from a man she despised. Before he risked himself further, he had to know she was sincere. He had to know it wasn’t simply gratitude for his largesse that brought her here, but her love. He poured himself a drink. And then another. A moment later he felt Charlotte’s tiny hands caressing his back. He closed his eyes as he savored her touch. When her hands cupped his buttocks and squeezed, he reached down and tore open the placket of his breeches, freeing his swollen cock. He took himself in hand and began to stroke, needing to ease his lust before he reached for her. Three nights he’d spent alone in this suite, knowing she was close, wanting her with a biting, penetrating need. To have her here, just as he’d imagined, was excruciating. His hunger was too powerful, his desire too great. Goaded any further, he couldn’t say if he was capable of even a modicum of control. “Allow me,” she murmured, her hands reaching around his waist, her pert breasts with their erect nipples pressing into his back. When she circled his cock with both hands and began to pump, his breath hissed out between his teeth, the pleasure searing in its intensity. She rested her cheek against his back. “I’ve missed touching you, holding you.” “I am the same man I was three days ago,” he growled, his head falling back, his eyes drifting closed. “Yes,” she whispered. “The man I love.”

• From Scandalous Liaisons (2007)

  His heart stilled before resuming its near-frantic beat, his thighs quivering with the need to fuck her, to claim her, his arms aching to hold her. “Any way?” “Wife or mistress—I care not. Just don’t send me away. I love you, Hugh.” She pressed her lips to his, and he groaned. “I love you,” she whispered against his mouth, her tears wetting his face and salting her kiss. “I’m so sorry I hurt you. This is so hard for me, to trust someone . . . but I do. I do trust you . . . and I love you so much.” Covering her mouth with his, he cradled her spine and slid her hips to the edge of the sideboard, dragging the creamy heat of her body over his cock until he was buried inside her. “Damn it,” he breathed, crushing her to him. “I almost thought you wouldn’t come to me. I feared you would go, and I would lose you.” “Never. Oh, Hugh . . .” Her cunt tightened around him. “Please . . .” He lifted her and stumbled to the settee, every step nudging him deeper into the wet, clenching heart of her. By the time he sank into the cushions, he was certain he would expire. “Ride me,” he ordered, his hands at her thighs urging her to move. “Remove your shirt,” she said. He tore the garment in his haste to be rid of it, and his reward was sweet. Charlotte lifted until he was barely within her and then lowered, encasing him in her silk, her soft whimper of need spurring his ardor. He felt maddened, wild. He wanted to grip her hips and lead the way, plunging into her, until the desperate hunger he felt was thoroughly sated. Instead, he spread his arms and held onto the settee, knowing he was mere moments away from a magnificent orgasm. An orgasm made all the richer by the love of the woman who held him so intimately. Gripping his shoulders for leverage, Charlotte set a hard, fast rhythm, pounding her lush body onto his cock as if she couldn’t get enough of him. His eyelids grew heavy, the drugging ecstasy tightening every muscle in his body, his fingers holding the wooden rim of the sofa so tightly, he feared it would snap. “I love you,” he said, his voice hoarse with emotion. Charlotte faltered. He didn’t. Moving quickly, he had her on the rug, her thighs over his, his cock driving deep. His strokes were strong and steady, his gaze locked with rapt attention on her face. Her skin was flushed, her full lips parted, her emerald eyes bright with love. She came on a gasp, her back arching upward, her shivers tightening around his shaft until it became difficult to withdraw, difficult to return, the soft sucking sounds of their lovemaking filling the room along with her cries.

• From Saint Augustine (Penguin Lives) (1999)

  Augustine proudly shows off his son’s prowess in The Teacher, while assuring us that he did not teach the boy. Boys learn with God’s own inborn instruments. But, as usual with Augustine, love sets the atmosphere in which God’s gifts work. The hatred of his father’s and his teachers’ beatings made Augustine adopt a different strategy for dealing with his own son (and, later, his students in the classroom and his colleagues in the monastery): I learned [to speak] as a baby, not inhibited by fear of punishment, surrounded as I was by coddling nurses, laughing games, and happy play. I learned without others’ punitive insistence that I learn, from my own heart’s need to deliver what I was laboring forth [parienda] to the outer world. . . . I picked up words from anyone who spoke to me, not just from tutors, and I somehow did labor forth my feelings in others’ ears. Unfettered inquisitiveness, it is clear, teaches better than do intimidating assignments. (T 1.23) Augustine’s dialogue Order in the Universe, composed near the time of The Teacher, can be taken as one long illustration of that passage on Augustine’s learning in an atmosphere of love. Dealing with young disciples in the dialogue on order, Augustine uses whatever piques the students’ interest—odd noises in a drainpipe, gamecocks, enthusiastic singing in an outhouse—to circle back to the subject of order in the universe. Yet permissive as Augustine was in his pedagogy, he was not starry-eyed about the human drives evidenced in the cradle. He notes the infant’s demands for attention, the envy and anger at other infants competing for that attention. The urge to rule (libido dominandi) is the devil’s first sin of pride and the cause of Adam’s fall, whose traces show in every heir to that primal sin. Despite all this, Godsend, the unwanted child, soon captivated his father and became a kind of laboratory experiment in the wonders of the human mind’s development. This is the boy of whom Augustine wrote, “His talent, if a father’s fondness deceives me not, was full of promise” (Happiness in This Life 1.6).

• From Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity (1989)

  Is that a reason for eschewing it? In one way perhaps it might be, as I shall mention in a minute. But first there seem to be very strong reasons in favour of articulacy wherever a constitutive good serves as a moral source. Moral sources empower. To come closer to them, to have a de arer view of them, to come to grasp what they involve, is for those who recognize them to be moved to love or respect them, and through this love/respect to be better enabled to live up to them. And articulation can bring them closer. That is why words can empower; why words can at times have tremendous moral force. And of course not just any articulation will do. Some formulations may be dead, or have no power at this place or time or with certain people. And in the most evident examples the power is not a function of the formulation alone, but of the whole speech act. Indeed, the most powerful case is where the speaker, the formulation, and the act of delivering the message all line up together to reveal the good, as the immense and continuing force of the gospel illust rates. A formulation has power when it brings the source close, when it makes it plain and evident, in all its inherent force, its capacity to inspire our love, respect, or allegiance. An effective articulation releases this force, and this is how words have power. Words may have power because they tap a source hitherto unknown or Moral Sources • 97 unfelt, as we see with the Exodus, with Isaiah, with the Gospels; or they may restore the power of an older sour ce that we have lost contact with, as with St. Francis or Erasmus. Or they may have power in another way, by articulating our feelings or our story so as to bring us in contact with a source we have been longing for.

• From Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity (1989)

  In the argument of the last chapters, I have been concentrating on qualitative distinctions between actions, or feelings, or modes of life. The goods which these define are facets or com ponents of a good life. Let us call these 'life goods'. But now we see, in Plato's case, that the life goods refer us to some feature of the way things are, in virtue of which these life goods are goods. This feature constitutes them as goods, and that is why I call them constitutive. The constitutive good does more than just define the content of the moral theory. Love of it is what empowers us to be good. And hence also loving it is part of what it is to be a good huma n being. This is now part of the content of the moral theory as well, which includes injunctio ns not only to act in certain ways and to exhibi t certain moral qualities but also to love what is good.2 This obviou sly takes us far beyond the purview of the morals of obligatory action. These theories balk even at acknowledging life goods; they obviously have no place at all for a constitutive good which might stand behind them. I argued at the end of the previou s chapter that the refusal of these theories to accept qualitative distinctions, while understandable, was based on a confusion; that they themselv es were motivated by goods of this kind. In other words, I argued that they were grounded on an unadmitted adherence to certain life goods, such as freedom, altruis m, universal justic e. And indeed, if the argument of the previous chapters is anywhere near right, it is hard to see how one could have a moral theory at all or, indeed, be a self, without some such adherence. Can an analogous point be made about constitutive goods? Do they too form part of the unacknowledged baggage of modern, or indeed of all, moral theories? Or is this Platonic notion of a good as the obje ct of empowerin g love something which belongs to the remote past ? It is obvious that Platonism is not alone in conceiving a constitutive good as source in this way. Christian and Jewish theism do as well. It was natural for Christian Platonists like Augustine to see God as occupying the place of Plato's Idea of the Good. The image of the sun serves for both, with of course the major difference that the love which empowers here is not just ours for God, but also his (agape) for us.

• From Comrade Loves of the Samurai (1972)

  Time passed, and the son reached his fourteenth year. His features and his manners were gentle and refined, and he recalled to his mother that cherished husband she had loft. She had kept a Corean harp and two swords fashioned by Kunimune, a celebrated ancient Japanese armourer, which her parents had given her when she left them. When she felt sad she used to play on the harp to distract herself and her dear son. In this manner they lived in their secluded hut. The destiny of man is surely inconstant and full of surprise. Senpatji Akanashi was banished by his master for some trifling offence; and, after travelling through several Provinces, he settled in a town near the hut in which the mother and son were living. They never met each other, and had no suspicion that they existed at such proximity. But one day Senpatji was invited by his friend Kurobatji Toriyama to hunt birds. On their way back they chanced to pass the widow's cottage, and heard the sound of the Corean harp which the mother was playing. They were charmed by this music and stopped to listen. Slipping through a hole in the hedge, they even peeped through a crack in the bamboo wall. A very beautiful woman of about thirty-five was playing the harp. She seemed to belong to some famous family of the high nobility, and to have disguised herself to live in this wretched hovel. Sitting by her side was her son Shynosuke, Studying the writing in a book which his mother had written herself. He was extremely handsome. The interested spectators were surprised to find such distinguished persons in this lonely village. They caused the door to be opened, and Stood for some minutes at the entrance to apologise for their intrusion. After a short visit they went away. Senpatji was Struck by the beauty of the young boy; he returned to the hut and became the intimate friend of its inhabitants. Little by little Senpatji and Shynosuke conceived a deep love for each other, and Senpatji took both mother and son with him to his town and there maintained them. In this way a year went peacefully. Then the mother noticed that Senpatji was very like the man who had killed her husband. One day she questioned him concerning his family and past life; then she became certain that he was the assassin of her husband, the father of her son. Next day she said to the boy: 'Senpatji killed your father before you were born. He was compelled to do so by the command of his master, who was also your father's master; but he is none the less your father's murderer. Kill him, and avenge your father.'

• From The Great Believers (2018)

  Stay there. Julian gave her a minute and then he said, “I was thinking about Hamlet . You know I was in it three different times, and I never got to be Hamlet? Actually it’s Horatio I was thinking about. I never got to be him either.” Fiona was filled with ridiculous, irrational love for Julian just then, for whatever he was about to say, because she could feel Nico beside her, and Yale and Terrence and all of them, rolling their eyes at Julian’s making this about himself, about his acting, which was such a Julian thing to do, and they all loved him anyway, and she still did too. He said, “The whole play is about Hamlet trying to avenge his father’s death, trying to tell the truth, right? And then when he dies, he hands it all to Horatio. In this harsh world draw thy breath in pain, to tell my story . See, I’d have made a great Hamlet! But what a burden. To be Horatio. To be the one with the memory. And what’s Horatio supposed to do with it? What the hell does Horatio do in act six?” Fiona leaned her forehead against Julian’s. They stood like that for a moment, head to head, nose to nose. The warmth of his skin soaked into her body, all the way down to her feet. She still had the magnifying glass in her hand, clenched tight. She wanted to call Claire over, show her these photos, tell her what Julian had just said, try to explain, or to try to start to explain, what her life had been. How this show might begin to convey it all, the palimpsest that was her heart, the way things could be written over but never erased. She was simply never going to be a blank slate. But she could do that in a minute. Claire was still here and she wasn’t going anywhere, and Julian was drawing her further into the gallery. The magnifying glass fell from her hand, swung on its little chain. He said, “This is the third thing.” The video installations. Two screens at the very back, far apart. He stood her in front of the one on the left. “The other is drag shows. This is the one to watch.” It showed a crowd on a sidewalk, standing very still. He said, “The Bistro. Do you remember the Bistro, or were you too young?” “It was the disco, right? I remember everyone talking about it like it was some lost arcadia.” “Well, yeah. It’s just that it was such a happy place. Not that there weren’t other places, but I don’t know if we were ever that happy again. This was the day they knocked it down.” She took a step closer. There was sound to the film, although you had to be standing right in front of the speaker to hear it.

• From Scandalous Liaisons (2007)

  “I’m not worried,” she denied, and then she dropped her head. “Well, perhaps that’s not entirely true. He’s been kind. I think, had I not met you first, I would have been content to spend my life at his side. It’s not his fault my affections are engaged elsewhere.” Lucien leaned against the door jamb and crossed his arms. “I want to pay off all of your brother’s markers. No strings attached.” “Beg your pardon?” “I want you to decide between Fontaine and me with your heart, not with your brother’s welfare in mind. I’ll have my solicitor draw up documents stating all the debts are paid, regardless of which one of us you wed.” His voice lowered and throbbed with emotion. “I would give up everything I have, Julienne, to give you a choice.” “No.” Julienne rose from her chair. “I don’t want you to do that. It isn’t money that will decide my mind.” Lucien remained by the door with the greatest of effort. “If I told you I loved you, would you believe me?” “Lucien . . .” “Haven’t you wondered why your brother has allowed me to see you?” “Well, yes . . .” “Extortion.” Julienne blinked. “He owes me a great deal of money. I leveraged it against him to get what I want—time with you.” She sank back into the chair. “I warned you I wasn’t honorable, my love. I told you I wasn’t a gentleman. I’ll do whatever it takes to win you. Anything at all. I have no scruples or morals to hold me back.” Lucien watched her closely. “Now, if I told you I love you, would you believe me?” “I don’t know,” she breathed. “But I want to.” She held out a hand to him, and that was all the encouragement he needed. He reached her in two strides and pulled her into his arms. Heat swirled around them, as did endless hunger. He would never have enough of her, would always crave her. “I need you, Julienne.” Her fingers entwined in his hair. “I’m here, my love.” “Not just now. Forever.” His mouth traveled down her neck. “You are mine. You belong to me. I won’t allow Fontaine to have you.” He tugged at her bodice, releasing her breasts, then laved her nipples until she clawed at his back. “Marry me,” he urged against her breast. “Love me,” she countered breathlessly. “Sweetheart,” Lucien said, smiling, “I already do.” Chapter Twelve Lucien watched Hugh La Coeur pace behind his desk in Montrose Hall. Unlike his own spacious and airy office, Montrose’s study was paneled in dark walnut, with parquet floors covered in Aubusson rugs. With red drapes so dark in color as to be almost black, the room was oppressive and forbidding, nothing like the jovial, irresponsible man who owned it. Leaning back a little farther in his chair, Lucien released his breath in a quiet rush. Unfortunately, this meeting was going exactly as he had anticipated.

• From Saint Thomas Aquinas Collection (22 Books) (2016)

  GLOSS. I will that he tarry, i. e. I will not that he suffer martyrdom, but wait for the quiet dissolution of the flesh, when I shall come and receive him into eternal blessedness. THEOPHYLACT. When our Lord says to Peter, Follow Me, He confers upon him the superintendence over all the faithful, and at the same time bids him imitate Him in every thing, word and work. He shews too His affection for Peter; for those who are most dear to us, we bid follow us. CHRYSOSTOM. (Hom. lxxxviii. 2) But if it be asked, How then did James assume the see of Jerusalem? I answer, that our Lord enthroned Peter, not as Bishop of this see, but as Doctor of the whole world: Then Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following, which also leaned on his breast at supper. It is not without meaning that that circumstance of leaning on His breast is mentioned, but to shew what confidence Peter had after his denial. For he who at the supper dared not ask himself, but gave his question to John to put, has the superintendence over his brethren committed to him, and whereas before he gave a question which concerned himself to another to put, he now asks questions himself of his Master concerning others. Our Lord then having foretold such great things of him, and committed the world to him, and prophesied his martyrdom, and made known his greater love, Peter wishing to have John admitted to a share of this calling, says, And what shall this man do? as if to say, Will he not go the same way with us? For Peter had great love for John, as appears from the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles, which give many proofs of their close friendship. So Peter does John the same turn, that John had done him; thinking that he wanted to ask about himself, but was afraid, he puts the question for him. However, inasmuch as they were now going to have the care of the world committed to them, and could not remain together without injury to their charge, our Lord says, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? as if to say, Attend to the work committed to thee, and do it: if I will that he abide here, what is that to thee? THEOPHYLACT. Some have understood, Till I come, to mean, Till I come to punish the Jews who have crucified Me, and strike them with the Roman rod. For they say that this Apostle lived up to the time of Vespasian, who took Jerusalem, and dwelt near when it was taken. Or, Till I come, i. e. till I give him the commission to preach, for to you I commit now the pontificate of the world: and in this follow Me, but let him remain till I come and call him, as I do thee now.

• From Sex God: Exploring the Endless Connections Between Sexuality and Spirituality (2007)

  She speaks a paradox. Two things are going on here. She’s giving. Giving herself away. Letting go. Losing herself in her lover. And yet she’s also getting something in return: the other person. Her lover, at the same time, has let go and fallen into her. There is something about losing yourself to another and their losing themselves in you at the same time that defies our ability to categorize. Healthy marriages all have this sense of mutual abandon to each other. They’ve both jumped, in essence, into the arms of the other. There is a sense of mutual abandon between them. If one holds back, if one refrains, it doesn’t work. We see this again in First Corinthians, where it’s written, “The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body but yields it to her husband. In the same way, the husband does not have authority over his own body but yields it to his wife.”5 So which is it? Is his body hers, or her body his? Who has the authority in this passage? The only proper answer is yes. Which is it? Yes. “I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine.” But this paradox of mutual submission is only one of the profound things going on in this passage. The command to the husband is to love your wife “just as Christ loved the church.” On the first pass, it seems quite straightforward. But as we’ve seen before, words in the Bible are often loaded. In this case, the word love in the Greek language is a specific kind of love. The word for love here is the word agape (ah-GAH-pay).6 We find the word all over the New Testament, and it’s generally used in the context of God’s love for people, as in John 3:16: “For God so loved the world.” So the man is to love the woman, to “agape” her, like God “agapes” the world. Agape is a particular kind of love. Love is often seen as a need, something we get from others. Agape is the opposite. Agape gives.

• From Holy Ghost Girl (2012)

  My sisters stood near the front of the line, an ordinary and astonishing sight. A remnant of scripture came to mind: “. . . and the last shall be first.” Unsure of whether to join the family or take a seat inside, I positioned myself to the side of the line. Was I family? Friend? Foe? Pam walked over, took my arm, and settled the question. I filed into church that morning with all of the women and children who had lived separate and sometimes secret lives with Brother Terrell. Legitimate and illegitimate, adopted and semiadopted, steps, halves, and blood relatives, mistresses and wives paraded down the aisle, two by two. The existence of my sisters and other children born outside the sanctity of marriage had become known fifteen years earlier, but the funeral marked our first and only appearance as a family. We numbered around seventy as we filed into the center section of the church. My husband and I took seats behind my three sisters. The secrets Brother Terrell had gone to such lengths to conceal had names and faces and sat shoulder to shoulder in his church, and yet it was a day like any other. The Earth didn’t shift on its axis. The sun didn’t fall from the sky. One less person drew breath, one less person sat among us, but the world creaked on and on.Most of Brother Terrell’s longtime followers and supporters had left him by the time Randall died. After his release from prison in 1987 he put up tents that seated twenty-five hundred, small tents by his old standards, and was lucky to draw two hundred people. Some believers had drifted away years earlier when news of his relationships with my mother and the preacher woman became known. Others left when he divorced the preacher woman and married a woman young enough to be his daughter. On the day of the funeral, many found their way back. The Bangs church, built to seat about twenty-five hundred, was full. Old friends flew toward one another, often meeting in front of the casket, laughing and talking in subdued voices while Randall slept on, hands folded on his chest. The family sat quiet and subdued.A minister who was a friend to Randall and a colleague of Brother Terrell’s opened the service with a prayer. He spoke of Randall as a man of faith, a preacher. This image of Randall did not fit with my memory of the boy who could not sit through a tent service, the boy who was always angling for a chance to play husbands and wives. The minister looked down at the casket.“Brother Randall fasted, prayed, and believed the Word, just like his daddy. He taught me so much about faith. I know many of y’all came to hear him preach over the years and heard the story of how time and time again God raised him up from his deathbed.”The family shifted from side to side.

• From A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (BDB) (1907)

  Ly 19% (both P), Dt "סז‎ ; love of friend to friend 1 ₪ 167 1817 20%" Jb 10% ולע‎ 8 1977 2 Ch 19°; v. also Pr 0" 16% 01. 15”; v. esp. Pt. infr. 2. less oft. of appetite, obj. food, Gn 277*4 (JE); drink Ho 3’ Pr21”; husbandry 2 Ch 26"; ef. fig. of Ephraim Ho 10” sq. inf.; length of life y 34%; of cupidity 110 (' Is 1% Ec 5°*; of love of sleep Pr 20801. fig. of sluggish watchmen (sq.inf.)Is 56"; also 6. obj.abstr. wis- dom (personif.), knowledge, righteousness, etc. Pr 4° 8 ד‎ 21 22725 Am 5” Mi 68 (inf. || infini- tives) 20 8", cf.Pr.198 W53 קְנָה 2 אהָב‎ ; obj. folly, evil, etc., Mi 3? 43 *זז ץש‎ 52°° 1097 Pri” 9% 17°, cf. 18% 26 8”, cf. א' כַּן‎ Am 4° Je 5%, sq. Inf. Ho12* Je 14", esp. of idolatry Ho 4"*(where del. 333 cf. Ko") Je 8% 3. love to God Ex 20° (JE) elsewhere Hex only Dt 5" 6" gt. Dt+Jos 22° 23"; also Ju5 1K 3° Ne 1* Dn 9}; esp. in (late) ¥ 31" 116’ 145”, but usually sq. name, law, ete. of " 5" 268 407 69% 70° 97” 1197"+ 1: 119; cf. Is 56°; cf. also of love to Jerusalem Is 66" 122% 4. esp. Pt. ans =(a) lover, Lat? (fig. of Jerus.); (6) friend Hiram of David 1 K 5”, cf. Je 20*° Est 5104 6% (רע||)38 ץש‎ so 88%, & Pr 14”; also 18" 27°; Abr. of God Is 418 2 Ch 20. ‘5. of divine love (a) to individual men Dt 47 2S 12* Pr 3” 15° ץ‎ 146° Ne 13”; (6) to people Israel, etc. רכ ו‎ hos 9° 11. 14 7K "סד‎ 2Ch 2" 05 ¥ 78° 87°; (c) to righteousness, etc. ~ 117 33° 37° 45° 99° Is 61° Mal 2", + Niph. Fé. pl. 3 + (הביף) מָאהָביף‎ 6 224 6 t.; WAND Ho 2 +4. 1. friends Zc 13°; 2. lovers in fig. of adulter. Isr. Ho 27%? Riz 23°; JudahJe 22°” סה‎ La 79 Ez 1 6°3:36.37 25 ,70068 ,אהְבִים n.[{m.] love only pl.‏ [אַהַב]1 loving‏ אַיּלֶת א' amours; bad sense Ho 8% but‏ ndy).‏ חן || hind Pr 5" (fig. of wife‏ n.[m.] id.=loved object, sf. DANN‏ [אהב]1 Ho 9" (=nv/a—5y3 v, Hi Now) ice. the idol worshipped ; pl.=amours (carnal sense) Pr ץ‎ >. t NAT nf. love (=Inf. of אהב‎ q.v.)—abs. Je 27+ 3t.; sf.‏ אהבת Prio’+418t.; estr.‏ א' IAS y 1og**; FANS 281%; ina Is 63°‏ Ec 9°—love, esp.‏ אִהְבְתֶם ;5% THINS Pr‏ ;237 WisdLt & late. 1. human (to human obj.) abs.‏ Ec 9" (both || 783%) so Pr ro” 15 cf. 27°5 v.‏ love for‏ ;°*109 ?ו also 17°; of man toward man‏ one’s self (WEI) 1S 20%; between man &‏ woman Ct 2** 5° 8°77; Pr 5% ef. also 2 ₪ 1° (א' נָשִים)‎ ; personif. Ct. 27 3° 7° 8*; cf. fig. אהל

• From A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians (1921)

  IIATHP AS APPLIED TO GOD 391 Jesus (see A. 2b above), occurs very frequently in Jn., once in Heb, (i6, where it is expressly based upon the 0. T. passage concerning the Son of David), in i Pet. 2 Jn. and Rev. In i Jn., as in the Gospel of John, 6 iwd)p absolute frequently occurs in antithesis with 6 uloc, suggesting that the ref- erence is to God as Father of Christ. N. T. usage in general evidently has a twofold basis, on the one side in the conviction attested by the synoptic gospels that as Jesus could speak to other men of God as "your Father," so he could also think and speak of him as "my Father," and on the other, in that the ascription to him of messiahship carried with it the designation of God as his Father in the sense in which God was the Father of the Messiah (cf. esp. Heb. i8)- These two conceptions have, indeed, a common root in the conception of God's love and watch-care over those whom he approves, but the differentiation of the two ideas would probably be more present to early Christian thought than their common root. A comparison of the several books of N* T., with remembrance of the order of their development and of that of their sources, especially of the synoptists and the fourth gospel, indicates that the two conceptions developed in the order named, the conception of the fatherhood of God as pertaining to Jesus in a unique sense or degree grad- ually gaining ascendancy over the earlier idea that God is Father of all whom he approves, but even in its latest forms never wholly losing sight of the basal idea of fatherhood as consisting essentially in love. That "the Father loveth the Son and showeth him all things that he himself doeth," as still in the fourth gospel the fundamental element of fatherhood.

• From The Ice Storm (1994)

  Williams had said, and it was his decision when to worship there and when to fast or rest. Did she understand? A person’s body was his first and last possession. We come into this world alone, Mrs. Williams said, and we permit this aloneness to be understood by another maybe once or twice in a whole life. And in adolescence, which Wendy probably knew about from her own parents, our bodies betray us. They grow strange. That was why, Mrs. Williams said, in Samoa, and in other developing nations, adolescents went out into the woods on foot, unarmed, and didn’t come back until they had learned a thing or two. Sandy hated her after that, as Mike and Sandy hated each other. Wendy knew already how boys fought when they were close. They fought the way families fought. The explosions and the affections came out of the same place. She had seen Mike chase Sandy with a fire iron one day, fully intending to put out his brother’s charcoal eyes, the next day volunteering to write Sandy’s poem for English class. They were more alike than not, those two boys. She watched Sandy and she learned how silence could conceal all kinds of high jinks. Still waters ran organized criminal networks and spearheaded new pornographic markets. Mike and Sandy were the same way except Mike was loud about it. They called each other Charles (and it was a term of respect) and they never went in the other’s bedroom, but they loved each other and would die inside when they parted for good. An example of their unsavory entrepreneurial activities: Mr. Williams had negotiated a deal with the folks at Topps Chewing Gum. What the deal was, nobody could ever explain to Wendy. She wasn’t sure Sandy or Mike understood it either. Bazooka gum, among the principal product lines of Topps, was a factor in the deal. As a result, the Williamses ended up with several large crates of Bazooka. These crates were warehoused in their basement. Bazooka, which was like a gold standard at Saxe Junior High and at New Canaan High School, was thus available to Mike and Sandy in gross quantities for use at school. With it, Mike was able to produce an impeccable collection of the 1973 New York Mets baseball cards (which didn’t help them win the World Series). With Bazooka Joe he had also procured fake vomit, a T-shirt that said Enjoy Cocaine in the same letters as the Enjoy Coca-Cola commercial, many types and varieties of firecrackers, such as M-80s and lady-fingers and bottle rockets, and a red Flexible Flyer sled. Sandy had turned his gum into currency, for a price slightly above retail, and filled a gigantic change bank with the money. He just liked to count the stuff. How Mike bested Sandy in the battle for Wendy’s body, a prize she was pretty willing to give up anyway, isn’t much of a story.

• From Little Women (1868)

  I see so many going to ruin for want of help at the right minute, I love so to do anything for them, I seem to feel their wants, and sympathize with their troubles, and oh, I should so like to be a mother to them!" Mrs. March held out her hand to Jo, who took it, smiling, with tears in her eyes, and went on in the old enthusiastic way, which they had not seen for a long while. "I told my plan to Fritz once, and he said it was just what he would like, and agreed to try it when we got rich. Bless his dear heart, he's been doing it all his life—helping poor boys, I mean, not getting rich, that he'll never be. Money doesn't stay in his pocket long enough to lay up any. But now, thanks to my good old aunt, who loved me better than I ever deserved, I'm rich, at least I feel so, and we can live at Plumfield perfectly well, if we have a flourishing school. It's just the place for boys, the house is big, and the furniture strong and plain. There's plenty of room for dozens inside, and splendid grounds outside. They could help in the garden and orchard. Such work is healthy, isn't it, sir? Then Fritz could train and teach in his own way, and Father will help him. I can feed and nurse and pet and scold them, and Mother will be my stand-by. I've always longed for lots of boys, and never had enough, now I can fill the house full and revel in the little dears to my heart's content. Think what luxury— Plumfield my own, and a wilderness of boys to enjoy it with me." As Jo waved her hands and gave a sigh of rapture, the family went off into a gale of merriment, and Mr. Laurence laughed till they thought he'd have an apoplectic fit. "I don't see anything funny," she said gravely, when she could be heard. "Nothing could be more natural and proper than for my Professor to open a school, and for me to prefer to reside in my own estate." "She is putting on airs already," said Laurie, who regarded the idea in the light of a capital joke. "But may I inquire how you intend to support the establishment? If all the pupils are little ragamuffins, I'm afraid your crop won't be profitable in a worldly sense, Mrs. Bhaer." "Now don't be a wet-blanket, Teddy. Of course I shall have rich pupils, also—perhaps begin with such altogether. Then, when I've got a start, I can take in a ragamuffin or two, just for a relish. Rich people's children often need care and comfort, as well as poor. I've seen unfortunate little creatures left to servants, or backward ones pushed forward, when it's real cruelty.

• From A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (BDB) (1907)

  abitu, command, D1, Eth. 018: refuse, Ar. Pp id., Nejd be willing So Pe %%9-2i OBI, S17) _ Qal (c. אַל ,לא‎ exe. Is 1° Jb 39°; in Hex. rare & only JED, incl. Ly 26”); Pf. "סז צנ אָבָה‎ + IAN ג‎ 10% + 7 t.; אבוא‎ 15 28% (StasB?; Kors): Impf. 7285 Dt 29" + 2 t.; 2 ms. juss. SAA Pr x? (Sta 189195. Koh!) etc.; Pe DIS Ez 37;—be willing, sq. Inf. with DEX 1074 29t.; without = ל‎ Dt248t.; subj. י"‎ Dt 10"? 23° 29” Jos 24° 2 K 8 13% 24* 20 217; human subj. Gn 247% | Ju nt 2 S 21 ד‎ 1 27 Ch yy 18-19 1 Ch19”; in bad sense Ex 107 Dt 2" 257 Ju. 19” 20% 28 13.77% esp. of perverse Isr. Ly 267 Dt 1% ד‎ 0 15° Is 28% 36° ae ee subj. animal,O") Jb 39°; abs. (no Inf.) 2 ₪ 12” 1 K 20% 22; cf. Pr 6°, of jealous man; bad sense Ju 117 Is 30%; good sense 1 ₪ 22" 267 31*=1 Ch ro* 2S 6° Pe 1 ץר‎ 8 יז‎ (DAYOWAIINA DN); consent, yield to, sq. לו‎ Dt 13° (good sense); sq. לי‎ 8r?; sq. ‘nyy> Pr 1%; sq.acc. ‘725M יק‎ (all in bad sense). Tyas adj. in want, needy, poor,—so, alw. abs., Dt 15*+40t.; TIS Ex 23° Dtr5”; DVIS Am 4*+ 14 6; אָבִינִי‎ (FIN) Ex 23” Is 29; MIVIN ו‎ 132°—(Hex. only JED; mostly poet., 23 t. y) needy, chiefly poor (in material things); as adj. Dt 157°; 24 p 109” (both || (עַכי‎ ; elsewhere subst.; y 49° (|| ;עשר‎ Dt 15‘; subj. to oppression & abuse Am 2° = (both || (צדיק‎ 47 8° (all || (דל‎ Is 327; Am 8* Ez 16° 18% 22” 37* Jb 24** Pr 30%—ef. ץ‎ 109" supr.—(all || (ענִי‎ Je 5” (|| (יתום‎ 2°; cared for by good Jb 29" 30% (|| DV) 31 y 112° Est 9”; Pr 14* (| (דל‎ 31% Je 22"°( || (עָנִי‎ ; care of them enjoined, negatively Ex 23";---0 Dt 24'* supr.—positively Ex 23” Dt 15" Pr, 31° (both || 29) —cf. Dt 1577 supra 82+ (|| 3); cared for by God Je 20% y 107" 132” Jb 5”; ש=2 ₪ ז‎ 1137 Is 14% (all || (דל‎ y 35° 140% (both || "2¥), ef. Davidic king y 72” (|| *צ= (עָנִי‎ ‘DS 123 (|| zd.), > (|| >1); needing help, deli- verance from trouble, esp. as delivered by God + 9” 12° 40%= 70° 747! 86' 109” Is 29” די‎ (all || 2) Is 55* )|| 92) + 69% 109”. אבִיונַה1‎ n.f. caper-berry (as stimulating אבה ar GBM SBE Ih Be 0 6 % Mish. ,אביונות‎ ef. NHWB ; v. also ©; i.e. capparis spinosa, cf. Ri"? ; so Thes, Ew De, etc.; but Wetzst in De (Germ. ed. 1875) proposes 73128 (as fem. of (אביון‎ the poor soul in כְשָמָתוּ ונל‎ cf. Symm 65, where double translation). desire) Ec 12° (