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.

Page 89 of 184 · 20 per page

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

  I have taken this wonderful little book of St. Thomas on the venerable Sacrament of the Altar for the first Volume of our ‘Library of the Holy Ghost,’ because the most adorable Sacrament of the Altar is part of the greatest work of the Holy Ghost. It is not that the Incarnation is His greatest work, and the Blessed Sacrament His next greatest. They are two parts of the greatest work that He has ever wrought. The mystery of the Tabernacle is a continuation of the mystery which St. John revealed when he said, ‘The Word was made flesh.’ The Holy Ghost, who overshadowed the Mother of God in Nazareth, overshadows the Tabernacle of God from the rising to the setting of the sun. Let all the Servants of the Holy Ghost strive, with ceaseless prayer, to have an ever-increasing love for the Heart of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, and let them give an ever-growing adoration to that Heart of God. Jesus is truly God and truly man: God in His Divine nature, and man in His assumed human nature. But He is only one Person—the Eternal Word, the Only-begotten Son of the Father. Therefore, as the Council of Ephesus teaches us to do, with one supplication we worship Emmanuel, that is, God with us in our nature; and we give Him one glory, because the Word was made flesh. We are also taught by the fifth Œcumenical Synod not so to adore Christ in His two natures as to bring in two adorations—one to the Godhead separately and one to the manhood separately; not in any way to confuse the Godhead and the manhood; but with one adoration to adore God, the Word Incarnate, with His Flesh, as the Holy Church has handed down from the beginning. Thus in the light of the Holy Ghost we adore the Heart of Jesus. It may be fanciful; but it seems to me that the way in which St. Thomas’s reasons fall into threes is a wonderful sign and token that the Sacrament of the Altar is the work of the Blessed Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Even in the natural order we see something like this; as, for instance, in light. The Servants of the Holy Ghost will also see and bear in mind that there are seven great divisions of this book.

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

  The word “life “may be understood, however, in two senses. There is the spiritual life whereby God Himself animates the soul. We may not sacrifice this life. For our love of our soul is proportionate to our love of God; and we ought to love God more than we love our neighbour. Therefore, we may not, in order to save another, injure our own soul by sin. We have also the physical life which animates our body. This life we ought to lay down for the brethren. For, it is Qur duty to prefer our neighbour to our body; and therefore it is right to sacrifice our physical life for the spiritual welfare of others. We are bound by precept to act thus if we see our neighbour exposed to any extreme spiritual danger. Thus, if we were to see another seduced from the Faith by unbelievers, we should be bound to expose ourselves to death if, thereby, we could save him from such ruin. But it pertains to the perfection of justice, and is a matter of counsel, to sacrifice life for the salvation of those who are not in grave spiritual necessity. St. Paul teaches us to do so by his own example, for he says, “But I, most gladly will spend and be spent myself for your souls” (2 Cor. xii. 15). On this passage the Gloss remarks, “It is perfect charity to be prepared to die for the brethren.”The state of slavery does in some sort resemble death, and is therefore called civil death. For life is chiefly manifested in ability to move; he that cannot move save by the agency of others, may be accounted dead. Now, a slave has no power over himself, but is governed by the will of his master; and therefore this condition of bondage may be compared to death. Hence a man, who, for the love of another, delivers. himself to bondage, practises the same perfection of charity, as he who exposes himself to death. Nay, we may say that he does more; for slavery is more abhorrent to our nature than is death.

• From Blue Like Jazz (2003)

  18 Love How to Really Love Other People WHEN MY FRIEND PAUL AND I LIVED IN THE woods, we lived with hippies. Well, sort of hippies. They certainly smoked a lot of pot. They drank a lot of beer. And man did they love each other, sometimes too much, perhaps, too physically, you know, but nonetheless they loved; they accepted and cherished everybody, even the ones who judged them because they were hippies. It was odd living with the hippies at first, but I enjoyed it after a while. They were not the traveling hippies, the “live off the land and other people” hippies. They were formally educated, most of them from New York studying at NYU, getting their master’s in literature, headed off to law school, that sort of thing. They knew all about Rostandt, all about Hopkins and Poe and Sylvia Plath. They knew the Americans and the Brits and the fashionable African writers, the Cubans and South Americans. They were books themselves, all of them were books, and what was so wonderful is that to them, I was a book too. We would sit around and talk about literature and each other, and I couldn’t tell the difference between the books they were talking about and their lives, they were just that cool. I liked them very much because they were interested in me. When I was with the hippies I did not feel judged, I felt loved. To them I was an endless well of stories and perspectives and grand literary views. It felt so wonderful to be in their presence, like I was special. I have never experienced a group of people who loved each other more than my hippies in the woods. All of them are tucked so neatly into my memory now, and I recall our evenings at camp or in the meadow or in the caves in my mind like a favorite film. I pull them out when I need to be reminded about goodness, about purity and kindness. The resort we were working at was Black Butte Ranch in central Oregon, and we were living about a mile off a ridge, beyond the cattle fence, down in a gully where stood stately pines and remarkable aspen. There were also a family of deer and a porcupine. The boys from New York worked at Honkers Café, named for the ducks, and Paul and I would merely have to sit ourselves on the deck off the lake and within minutes we would have a burger or a shake or a slice of pie, always delivered with a smile, always for free. They were stealing from the rich to feed the poor. We were eating food from the wealthy table of the white man. This is how I thought about it, even though I was white.

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

  The Fundamental Error of These Opinions ExposedIN order to refute this error, once and for all, we must examine the fallacy on which it is based. Now the premises on which the followers of Vigilantius construct their argument are erroneous, and for this reason. They assume that perfection consists, chiefly, in the observance of the Counsels; and that the Commandments, compared to the Counsels, are as the imperfect compared to the perfect. Therefore, they say, we must go from Commandments to Counsels, as from imperfection to perfection. But this proposition is false. We know from the very words of our Lord (Mt 22:37) that the first and chief commandment of the Law is the love of God and of our fellow-men. “The first commandment is, you shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole mind. And the second is like it: you shall love your neighbour as yourself.” The perfection of Christian life consists essentially, in obeying these two precepts, Hence the Apostle says to the Colossians (3:14), “ But above all these things, have charity, which is the bond of perfection.” On this passage the Gloss observes that charity makes other things perfect, in so far, that is to say, as they are ordered in charity. For charity binds all things together. Again, when our Lord had been giving the precepts of brotherly love (Mt 5:48), He added, “Be therefore perfect as also your Heavenly Father is perfect.” St. Jerome says, commenting on the words in St. Matthew 19:27, “Behold, we have left all things and have followed you”: “Whereas it does not suffice to have left all things, he (Peter) adds ‘and have followed you.’ For the Apostles followed the Lord not so much in bodily presence, as in affections of the heart.” Again, St. Ambrose, alluding to the words, “follow me” (Luke 5), says: “Christ commands him (Levi) to follow Him, not with his feet, but with the desires of his mind.” It is thus abundantly evident that the perfection of the Christian life consists in charity towards God. And there is a very solid reason for this conclusion. The perfection of anything consists, as we know, in its attainment of its end. Now the end of the Christian life is that charity, to which all things must be ordered, and which, as St. Paul says (1 Tim 1:5), is “the end of the commandment,” or, as the Gloss says, in its comment on this text, “is the perfection of the precept, that is to say, of all precepts, for the love of God and of our neighbour is the fulfilment of all.”

• From Heptaméron (1559)

  There was a mercer in Paris who was enamoured of a girl in his neighbourhood, or, to speak more properly, who was loved by her, rather than she by him, for he only pretended to be attached to her in order to conceal another amour with a more exalted object. For her First day^ \ QUEEN OF NA VARRE. 5 1 part, she was very willing to be deceived, and loved him so much that she forgot all the usual coyness of her sex. After the mercer had long taken the trouble of going in search of her, he used afterwards to make her come to him wherever he pleased. The mother, who was a re- spectable woman, perceived this, and forbade her daugh- ter ever to speak to the mercer, under pain of being sent to a convent ; but the girl, who loved the mercer more than she feared her mother, behaved worse than ever. One day the mercer, finding her alone in a convenient place, began to entertain her on matters that ought not to be discussed before v/itnesses ; but a servant, who had seen him come in, ran and told the mother, who hastened to the spot to put an end to the conversation. The daughter, hearing her footsteps, said, with tears in her eyes, " My love for you will cost me dear ; here comes my mother, and she will now be convinced of what she always feared." The mercer, without losing his presence of mind, instantly c^uitted the girl, ran to meet her mother, threw his arms around the old wo- man's neck, hugged her with all his might, threw her on a little bed, and began to expend upon her all the rage her daughter had excited within him. The poor old woman, quite confounded at being treate 1 in this way, could only exclaim, " What are you about t Are you mad.?" But he no more desisted than if she had been the handsomest young girl in the world ; and if her screams had not brought the servant men and maids to her assistance, she would have suffered the fate she apprehended so much for her daughter. The servants dragged the good woman by force out of the mercer's hands, without the poor creature ever knowing why she had been so worried. During the scuffle, the daughter escaped to a neighbour's house, where there was a wed« 52 THE HEPTAMERON OF THE [JVovel 7. ding going on ; and she and the mercer often afterwards laughed at the expense of the old woman, who never detected their intercourse.

• From Heptaméron (1559)

  The death of her husband, without children, six weeks after the battle of Pavia, left Margaret free to act as became her intense affection for her mother and her brother, who both had the most urgent need of her help. \\'ith the emperor's permission she embarked at Aigues Mortes for Spain, in spite of contrary winds, on the 27th of August, 1525 • hastened to Madrid, " and found her brother in so wretched a condition that had she not come he had died ; because she understood his temper and constitution better tiian all his physicians could do, and caused him to be treated accordingly, which entirely recovered him : so that the king would often say that without her he must have died ; and that he was so much obli'^ed to her for it that he should for ever acknowledge it, and love her (,as he did) to his dying day." f The task which Margaret had to accomplish at Madrid was one of great difficulty. In spite of the apparent cordiality with which she was universally treated at the imperial court, and the ver}' favourable disposition Charles V. always evinced in words, she soon perceived the hollowness of his friendly protestations. " Everyone tells me that he likes the king." she says in one of her letters, "but the experience thereof is small. If I had to do with good men, who understood what honour is, I should not care ; but it is the reverse." Fortunately she was not one to give way before the first difficulties. She tried in the beginning to win over some great personages in the imperial court, but afterwards perceiving that the men always avoided talking with her upon anv serious topic, she took care to address herself to their mothers, wives, or daughters. In a letter to Marshal de Montmorency she says of the Duke de Infantado, who had invited her to his castle of Guadalaxara, " You will tell the king that the duke has been warned from the court, that as he desires to please the emperor, neither he nor his son is to speak to me ; but * Brantome, Danu-s lllisires, ■{• Ibid, QUEEN OF NA VAKRE. xxv the ladies are not forbidden me, and I shall speak to them doubly."

• From Heptaméron (1559)

  and theology. Let us leave these matters to those who are more competent to discuss them, and ask Nomerfide to whom she gives her voice." " To Hircan," she replied, " but on condition that he will be tender of the honour of the ladies." " The condition fits me very aptly," said Hircan, "for the story I have to tell you is the very one to fulfil it. You shall see from it, nevertheless, that the inclination of men and of women is naturally vicious, unless it be kept right by the goodness of Him to whom we ought to impute all the victories we achieve over ourselves. And to abate the airs you give yourselves when any story is told which does you honour, I will tell you one which is strictly true." NOVEL XXXV. How a sensible husband cured his wife of her passion for a Cordelier. At Pampelune there was a lady who was reputed fair and virtuous, and at the same time the most devout and chaste in the country. She loved her husband much, and was so obsequious to him that he had entire confi- dence in her. She was wholly occupied with God's ser- vice, and never missed a single sermon, and omitted nothing by which she could hope to persuade her hus- band and her children to be as devout as herself, who was but thirty years old, an age at which women com- monly resign the pretensions of beauties for those of new she-sages. On the first day of Lent this lady went to church to receive the ashes which are a memorial of death. A Cordelier, whose austerity of life had gained him the 3i6 THE HEPTAMERON OF THE tAW^/35.

• From Heptaméron (1559)

  ipated me, and have said to me what I have long re- solved to say to you. Ever since I have known you, now two years, not a moment has passed in which I have not thought over all the arguments that could be adduced in your favour and against you ; but at last, having resolved to engage in matrimony, it is time that I should make a beginning, and choose the man with whom I think I can pass my life with most quiet and satisfaction. I have had as suitors men of good figure, wealthy, and of high birth ; but you are the only one with whom it seems to me that my heart and mind can best agree. I know that in marrying you I do not of- fend God, but that, on the contrary, I do what he com- mands. As for my father, he has so much neglected the duty of establishing me, and has rejected so many opportunities, that the law empowers me to marry with- out his having a right to disinherit me ; but even should I have nothing but what belongs to myself, I shall esteem myself the happiest woman in the world in having such a husband as you. As for the queen, my mistress, I need make no scruple of disobeying her to obey God, since she has not scrupled to frustrate all the advantages that offered themselves to me dur- ing my youth. But to prove to you that my love for you is founded on honour and virtue, I require your promise that, in case I consent to the marriage you propose, you will not ask to consummate it until after the death of my father, or until I shall have found means to obtain his consent." The bastard having promised this with alacrity, they gave each other a ring in pledge of marriage, and ex- changed kisses in the church before God, whom they called to witness their mutual promise ; and never after- wards was there anything between them of a more inti- 198 THE HEPTAMERON OF THE \Nmjel 2\

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

  Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and feet in it, when they are going into the tabernacle of the testimony, and when they are to come to the Altar, to offer on it incense to the Lord, lest perhaps they die. Ex. 30:19–21. Wash thy heart from wickedness, O Jerusalem, that thou mayest be saved; how long shall hurtful thoughts abide in thee? Jerem. 4:14. Every night I will wash my bed and water my couch with tears. Ps. 6:7. b. Works of penance; Thou shalt make the tabernacle in this manner: thou shalt make ten curtains of fine twisted linen and violet and purple, and scarlet twice dyed, diversified with embroidery. Ex. 26:1. I chastise my body and bring it into subjection, lest perhaps when I have preached to others I myself should become a castaway. 1 Cor. 9:27. Torture and fetters are for a malicious slave; send him to work, that he be not idle; for idleness hath taught much mischief. Ecclus. 33:28, 29. Many are the afflictions of the just, but out of them all will the Lord deliver them. Ps. 33:20. c. The love of God; He hath set His tabernacle in the sun. Ps. 18:6. Thou art all fair, O my Love, and there is not a spot in Thee. Cantic. 4:7. 3. Fervent prayer; They asked and the quail came, and He filled them with the bread of Heaven. Ps. 104:40. Before I eat, I sigh. Job 3:24. When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalen and Mary the mother of James and Salome bought sweet spices, that coming they might anoint Jesus. St. Mark 16:1. Ezechias prayed for him, saying, The Lord who is good will show mercy to all them who with their whole heart seek the Lord the God of their fathers; and will not impute it to them that they are not sanctified: and the Lord heard him, and was merciful to the people. 2 Paralip. 30:18–20. B. The Host of bread; 1. a. Hardness of the grains; They have made their faces harder than the rock, and they have refused to return. Jerem. 5:3. b. Covered with bran; How exceedingly base art thou become; going the same ways over again. Jerem. 2:36. c. Separation; Their heart is divided: now they have perished. Osee 10:2. 2. The bread-making; a. The mill; Take a millstone and grind meal. Is. 47:2. Mercy of God; Thy mercy is great towards me: and Thou hast delivered my soul out of the nethermost hell. Ps. 85:13. Thy mercy will follow me all the days of my life, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord for ever. Ps. 22:6. Let Thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us, as we have hoped in Thee. Ps. 32:22. Withhold not Thou, O Lord, Thy tender mercies from me; Thy mercy and Thy truth have always upheld me. Ps. 39:12. Thy mercy is magnified to the heavens. Ps. 56:11.

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

  Objection 3: Further, just as the object of charity is God. so is the object of faith. Now faith extends to irrational creatures, since we believe that heaven and earth were created by God, that the fishes and birds were brought forth out of the waters, and animals that walk, and plants, out of the earth. Therefore charity extends also to irrational creatures. On the contrary, The love of charity extends to none but God and our neighbor. But the word neighbor cannot be extended to irrational creatures, since they have no fellowship with man in the rational life. Therefore charity does not extend to irrational creatures. I answer that, According to what has been stated above ([2536]Q[13], A[1]) charity is a kind of friendship. Now the love of friendship is twofold: first, there is the love for the friend to whom our friendship is given, secondly, the love for those good things which we desire for our friend. With regard to the first, no irrational creature can be loved out of charity; and for three reasons. Two of these reasons refer in a general way to friendship, which cannot have an irrational creature for its object: first because friendship is towards one to whom we wish good things, while, properly speaking, we cannot wish good things to an irrational creature, because it is not competent, properly speaking, to possess good, this being proper to the rational creature which, through its free-will, is the master of its disposal of the good it possesses. Hence the Philosopher says (Phys. ii, 6) that we do not speak of good or evil befalling such like things, except metaphorically. Secondly, because all friendship is based on some fellowship in life; since “nothing is so proper to friendship as to live together,” as the Philosopher proves (Ethic. viii, 5). Now irrational creatures can have no fellowship in human life which is regulated by reason. Hence friendship with irrational creatures is impossible, except metaphorically speaking. The third reason is proper to charity, for charity is based on the fellowship of everlasting happiness, to which the irrational creature cannot attain. Therefore we cannot have the friendship of charity towards an irrational creature. Nevertheless we can love irrational creatures out of charity, if we regard them as the good things that we desire for others, in so far, to wit, as we wish for their preservation, to God’s honor and man’s use; thus too does God love them out of charity. Wherefore the Reply to the First Objection is evident. Reply to Objection 2: The likeness by way of trace does not confer the capacity for everlasting life, whereas the likeness of image does: and so the comparison fails. Reply to Objection 3: Faith can extend to all that is in any way true, whereas the friendship of charity extends only to such things as have a natural capacity for everlasting life; wherefore the comparison fails.

• From Blue Like Jazz (2003)

  I will love you, as sure as He has loved me. I will discover what I can discover and though you remain a mystery, save God’s own knowledge, what I disclose of you I will keep in the warmest chamber of my heart, the very chamber where God has stowed Himself in me. And I will do this to my death, and to death it may bring me. I will love you like God, because of God, mighted by the power of God. I will stop expecting your love, demanding your love, trading for your love, gaming for your love. I will simply love. I am giving myself to you, and tomorrow I will do it again. I suppose the clock itself will wear thin its time before I am ended at this altar of dying and dying again. God risked Himself on me. I will risk myself on you. And together, we will learn to love, and perhaps then, and only then, understand this gravity that drew Him, unto us.14 Alone Fifty-three Years in Space I WAS IN LOVE ONCE. I THINK LOVE IS A BIT OF heaven. When I was in love I thought about that girl so much I felt like I was going to die and it was beautiful, and she loved me, too, or at least she said she did, and we were not about ourselves, we were about each other, and that is what I mean when I say being in love is a bit of heaven. When I was in love I hardly thought of myself; I thought of her and how beautiful she looked and whether or not she was cold and how I could make her laugh. It was wonderful because I forgot my problems. I owned her problems instead, and her problems seemed romantic and beautiful. When I was in love there was somebody in the world who was more important than me, and that, given all that happened at the fall of man, is a miracle, like something God forgot to curse. I no longer think being in love is the polar opposite of being alone, however. I say that because I used to want to be in love again as I assumed this was the opposite of loneliness. I think being in love is an opposite of loneliness, but not the opposite. There are other things I now crave when I am lonely, like community, like friendship, like family. I think our society puts too much pressure on romantic love, and that is why so many romances fail. Romance can’t possibly carry all that we want it to. Tony the Beat Poet says the words alone, lonely, and loneliness are three of the most powerful words in the English language. I agree with Tony. Those words say that we are human; they are like the words hunger and thirst . But they are not words about the body, they are words about the soul.

• From Heptaméron (1559)

  tlenian was greatly pleased, and gave much thanks to his sovereign. But seeing that his wife was becoming more beautiful every day, and he himself older and less good- looking, he began to change his part, and to assume that which he had long made his wife play ; for he sought her more than he had been wont, and took much more notice of her. But the more he sought her the more she shunned him, Demg very glad to pay him back a part of the distress he had caused her by his mdifference. At the same time, not to miss the pleasure which love was beginning to afford her, she cast her eyes on a young gentleman whose person and manners were so engaging, that he was a favourite with all the ladies of the court. By complaining to him of the unkind treatment she had experienced, she inspired him with such pity for her, that he left nothing untried to console her. On her part, to indemnify her for the prince she had lost, she loved this new friend so heartily, that she forgot her past griefs, and thought only of the means of adroitly carrying on her intrigue ; and in this she succeeded so well, that her mistress never perceived it, for she took good care never to speak in her presence to her lover. When she had anything to say to him, she went to see certain ladies of the court. Among these was one with whom her hus- band seemed to be in love. One dark night after supper she stole away alone, and entered the ladies' room, where she found him whom she loved more than herself. She sat down beside him, and leaning over a table they conversed together, whilst they pretended to be reading a book. Some one whom the husband had set on the watch came and told him whither his wife was gone ; and he, like a sensible man as he was, said nothing, but followed her quickly, en- tered the room, and saw her reading a book. Pretend- Second day \ QVEEA' OF NAVARRE. I47 ing" not to see her, he went straight up to the ladies, who were at the other side of the room ; whilst so discon- certed was she at being found by him with a man to whom she had never spoken in his presence, that she scrambled over a table, and ran away as if her husband was pursuing her sword in hand, and went to her mis- tress, who was just about to retire for the night.

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

  Reply to Objection 1: The Philosopher (Ethic. viii) does not deny that friendship is a virtue, but affirms that it is “either a virtue or with a virtue.” For we might say that it is a moral virtue about works done in respect of another person, but under a different aspect from justice. For justice is about works done in respect of another person, under the aspect of the legal due, whereas friendship considers the aspect of a friendly and moral duty, or rather that of a gratuitous favor, as the Philosopher explains (Ethic. viii, 13). Nevertheless it may be admitted that it is not a virtue distinct of itself from the other virtues. For its praiseworthiness and virtuousness are derived merely from its object, in so far, to wit, as it is based on the moral goodness of the virtues. This is evident from the fact that not every friendship is praiseworthy and virtuous, as in the case of friendship based on pleasure or utility. Wherefore friendship for the virtuous is something consequent to virtue rather than a virtue. Moreover there is no comparison with charity since it is not founded principally on the virtue of a man, but on the goodness of God. Reply to Objection 2: It belongs to the same virtue to love a man and to rejoice about him, since joy results from love, as stated above ([2500]FS, Q[25], A[2]) in the treatise on the passions: wherefore love is reckoned a virtue, rather than joy, which is an effect of love. And when virtue is described as being something ultimate, we mean that it is last, not in the order of effect, but in the order of excess, just as one hundred pounds exceed sixty. Reply to Objection 3: Every accident is inferior to substance if we consider its being, since substance has being in itself, while an accident has its being in another: but considered as to its species, an accident which results from the principles of its subject is inferior to its subject, even as an effect is inferior to its cause; whereas an accident that results from a participation of some higher nature is superior to its subject, in so far as it is a likeness of that higher nature, even as light is superior to the diaphanous body. In this way charity is superior to the soul, in as much as it is a participation of the Holy Ghost. Whether charity is a special virtue?Objection 1: It would seem that charity is not a special virtue. For Jerome says: “Let me briefly define all virtue as the charity whereby we love God” [*The reference should be to Augustine, Ep. clxvii]: and Augustine says (De Moribus Eccl. xv) [*De Civ. Dei xv, 22] that “virtue is the order of love.” Now no special virtue is included in the definition of virtue in general. Therefore charity is not a special virtue.

• From The Hours (1998)

  He must, Louis thinks, have been huge, rugged, a figure of Celtic myth, for here now is Julia, who even in her tank top and shorts, her black combat boots, looks as if she should be carrying a sheaf of barley under one arm and a new lamb under the other. “Hello, Louis,” she says. She holds his hand but does not shake it. Of course, she knows he’s been crying. She does not seem particularly surprised. What must she have heard about him? “I’ve got to go,” he says. She nods. “How long are you here?” she asks. “Just a few days. But I’m moving back. It’s good to see you. Bye, Clarissa.” “Five o’clock,” Clarissa says. “What?” “The party. It’s at five. Please come.” “Of course I’ll come.” Julia says, “Goodbye, Louis.” She is a handsome nineteen-year-old who says hello and goodbye, not “hi” and “bye.” She has unusually small, very white teeth. “Goodbye.” “You will come, won’t you?” Clarissa says. “Promise me you’ll come.” “I promise. Goodbye.” He gets himself out of the apartment, still vaguely teary; furious with Clarissa; vaguely, absurdly in love with Julia (he who has never been attracted to women, never—he still shudders, after all these years, at the recollection of that awful, desperate attempt he made with Clarissa, simply to retain his claim on Richard). He imagines running, with Julia, out of that dreadful, tasteful apartment; getting himself and her away from the linen-colored walls and the botanical prints, from Clarissa and her glasses of carbonated water with lemon slices. He walks down the dim hallway (twenty-three steps), through the door to the vestibule and then through the outer door, onto West Tenth Street. The sun explodes like a flashbulb in his face. He rejoins, gratefully, the people of the world: a ferrety-looking man walking two dachshunds, a fat man sweating majestically in a dark blue suit, a bald woman (fashion or chemotherapy?) who leans against Clarissa’s building sucking on a cigarette and whose face looks like a fresh bruise. Louis will return here, to this city; he will live in an apartment in the West Village, sit in Dante with an espresso and a cigarette in the afternoons. He isn’t old, not yet. The night before last he stopped his car in the Arizona desert and stood under the stars until he could feel the presence of his own soul, or whatever you wanted to call it; the continuing part that had been a child and then stood—it seemed a moment later—in the desert silence under the constellations.

• From Blue Like Jazz (2003)

  After surviving the suicide attempt, Rick went to Bible college, married a girl he met in school, and now they have four children. A little over a year ago he planted a church in down-town Portland, widely considered the most unchurched region in the United States. There were only about eight of us at our first meeting, and now the church has grown to more than five hundred people. On a given Sunday there are dozens of nonbelievers at our church, and each week Rick shares with them the patient love of God. He talks about Jesus as if he knows Him, as if he has talked to Him on the phone earlier that morning. Rick loves God because he accepts God’s unconditional love first. Rick says that I will love God because he first loved me. I will obey God because I love God. But if I cannot accept God’s love, I cannot love Him in return, and I cannot obey Him. Self-discipline will never make us feel righteous or clean; accepting God’s love will. The ability to accept God’s unconditional grace and ferocious love is all the fuel we need to obey Him in return. Accepting God’s kindness and free love is something the devil does not want us to do. If we hear, in our inner ear, a voice saying we are failures, we are losers, we will never amount to anything, this is the voice of Satan trying to convince the bride that the groom does not love her. This is not the voice of God. God woos us with kindness, He changes our character with the passion of His love. We dream of Christ’s love for His bride reading like Romeo and Juliet; two equals enflamed in liberal love. I think it is more like Lucentio’s pursuit of Bianca in The Taming of the Shrew. That is, the groom endearing the belligerent bride with kindness, patience, and love. Our “behavior” will not be changed long with self-discipline, but fall in love and a human will accomplish what he never thought possible. The laziest of men will swim the English channel to win his woman. I think what Rick said is worth repeating that by accepting God’s love for us, we fall in love with Him, and only then do we have the fuel we need to obey. In exchange for our humility and willingness to accept the charity of God, we are given a kingdom. And a beggars’s kingdom is better than a proud man’s delusion. 8 gods Our Tiny Invisible Friends

• From Heptaméron (1559)

  tation of Amadour. Florida, who had formerly shunned nothing so much as her husband's presence, resolved to pass all her life by his side, to avoid her mother's harsh- ness ; but seeing that nothing succeeded with her, she made up her mind to deceive Amadour. To this end she pretended to be more tractable, and advised him to attach himself to a lady to whom she said she had spoken of their mutual love. This lady, who was in the queen's household, and whose name was Loretta, de- lighted at having made such a conquest, was so little mistress of her transports that the affair became noised abroad. The Countess of Aranda herself, being at court, became aware of it, and afterwards treated Florida with more gentleness. Loretta's husband, who was a captain, and one of the King of Spain's great governors, was so incensed that he was resolved to kill Amadour at all hazards; but Florida, who heard of this, and, in spite of herself, still loved Amadour, instantly gave him warning. Eager as he was to return to her, he replied that if she would grant him every day three hours conversation, he would never speak another word to Loretta ; but she would do nothing of the sort. " Since, then, you do not wish me to live," said Amadour, " why would you hinder me from dying, unless you hope to make me suffer more in living than the pain of a thou- sand deaths ? Let death fly me as it will, I will seek it, so that at last I shall find it, and then only I shall be at rest." Meanwhile, news arrived that the King of Grenada had begun hostilities against the King of Spain, which obliged the king to send his son thither with the Con- stable of Castile and the Duke of Alva, two old and sage lords. The Duke of Cardona and the Count of Aranda desired to take part in the campaign, and begged the First day?^ Q UEEN OF JVA VA RRE. I o \

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

  We see, thirdly, from the precept concerning charity, that our love of our neighbour must be holy. That is called holy which is directed to God. An altar, and the other things used in the sacred ministry, are holy, because they are dedicated to His service. Now, when one man loves another as himself, there must be intercommunion between them; and, in so far as the two persons are united together, they are considered as forming one; and the one behaves to the other as to himself. There are, however, several ways in which two persons may be joined together. They may be joined by ties of blood, i.e. by being born of the same parents. They may be joined by certain social ties—they may be fellow-citizens, under the same ruler and the same laws. Or, they may be joined by certain professional or commercial bonds—they may be fellow-workmen, or fellow-soldiers. Now the neighbourly love which may exist between men, united by these various bonds, may be just and seemly, but it cannot, on that account, be called holy. For love can only be called holy in so far as it is directed to God. Fellow-citizens agree in being subject to the same ruler whose laws they obey; and all men, inasmuch as they naturally aspire to happiness, are united in their inclinations towards God, the Beginning of all things, the Source of happiness, and the Principle of justice. But, we must remember, that, in the right order, the general is preferable to the particular good. A part is, by a natural instinct governed by the good of the whole. The hand, for example, is exposed to danger in order to shield the head or heart, the source of life. Now, in the communion, whereof we have been speaking, and in which all men are united by their natural tendency towards happiness, each individual must be considered as a part, and God, in whom the happiness of all consists, must be regarded as the universal Good of the whole. Hence, according to right reason and natural instinct, each man orders himself towards God, as a part is ordered to the whole; and this orderlis made perfect by charity, whereby man loves himself for God’s sake. Now, when he also loves his neighbour for God’s sake, he loves him as himself; and his love thus becomes holy. This is plainly expressed by St. John, in the following words: “This commandment we have from God that he who loves God, should also love his brother” (1 John iv. 21).

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

  Others there are, however, who make a complete sacrifice of their own will, for the love of God, submitting themselves to another by the vow of obedience, of which virtue Christ has given us a sublime example. For, as we read in the Epistle to the Romans (v. 19), “As by the disobedience of one man, many were made sinners; so also by the obedience of one, many shall be made just.” Now this obedience consists in the abnegation of our own will. Hence, our Lord said, “Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from Me: nevertheless not as I will but as you will” (Matt. xxvi. 39). Again He said (John vi. 38), “I came down from Heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.”By these words He shows us, that, as He renounced His own will, submitting it to the Divine will, so we ought wholly to subject our will to God, and to those whom He has set over us as His ministers. To quote the words of St. Paul, “obey your prelates and be subject to them “ (Heb. xiii. 17). CHAPTER XI The Three Means of Perfection, of Which We Have Hitherto Been Speaking, Belong, Peculiarly, to the Religious StateWE find the three ways to perfection in religious life, embodied in the three vows of perpetual poverty, chastity, and obedience. Religious follow the first road to perfection by the vow of poverty, whereby they renounce all property. By the vow of chastity, whereby they renounce marriage, they enter on the second road to perfection. They set forth on the third road to perfection, by the vow of obedience, whereby they sacrifice their own will. Now these three vows well beseem the religious life. For, as St. Augustine says (lib. x. de Civitate Dei), “The word religion means, not any sort of worship, but the worship of God.” And Tully says, in his Rhetorica, that “religion is a virtue, paying worship and reverence to a certain higher nature which men term the Divine nature.” Now the worship which is due to God alone, consists in the offering of sacrifice. Such sacrifices may consist in external things, when they are given for the love of God. Thus, St. Paul says, (Hebrews xiii. 3), “Do not forget to do good and to impart; for by such sacrifices God’s favour is obtained.” We also offer to God the sacrifice of our own bodies, when, as St. Paul says (Gal. v. 24), “we crucify the flesh with its vices and concupiscences,” or, when we obey, his exhortation to the Romans (xii. 1), “Present your bodies a living , sacrifice, holy, pleasing, unto God.” There is, again, a third and most agreeable sacrifice to God, spoken of in the 50th Psalm (v. 19), “a sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit.”

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

  Thirdly, it may be understood by way of comparison of the lover to the thing loved, so that the mode of the lover equal the mode of the thing loved. This is impossible: for, since a thing is lovable in proportion to its goodness, God is infinitely lovable, since His goodness is infinite. Now no creature can love God infinitely, because all power of creatures, whether it be natural or infused, is finite. This suffices for the Replies to the Objections, because the first three objections consider the question in this third sense, while the last takes it in the second sense. Whether in loving God we ought to observe any mode?Objection 1: It would seem that we ought to observe some mode in loving God. For the notion of good consists in mode, species and order, as Augustine states (De Nat. Boni iii, iv). Now the love of God is the best thing in man, according to Col. 3:14: “Above all . . . things, have charity.” Therefore there ought to be a mode of the love of God. Objection 2: Further, Augustine says (De Morib. Eccl. viii): “Prithee, tell me which is the mode of love. For I fear lest I burn with the desire and love of my Lord, more or less than I ought.” But it would be useless to seek the mode of the Divine love, unless there were one. Therefore there is a mode of the love of God. Objection 3: Further, as Augustine says (Gen. ad lit. iv, 3), “the measure which nature appoints to a thing, is its mode.” Now the measure of the human will, as also of external action, is the reason. Therefore just as it is necessary for the reason to appoint a mode to the exterior effect of charity, according to Rom. 12:1: “Your reasonable service,” so also the interior love of God requires a mode. On the contrary, Bernard says (De Dilig. Deum 1) that “God is the cause of our loving God; the measure is to love Him without measure.” I answer that, As appears from the words of Augustine quoted above (OBJ 3) mode signifies a determination of measure; which determination is to be found both in the measure and in the thing measured, but not in the same way. For it is found in the measure essentially, because a measure is of itself the determining and modifying rule of other things; whereas in the things measured, it is found relatively, that is in so far as they attain to the measure. Hence there can be nothing unmodified in the measure whereas the thing measured is unmodified if it fails to attain to the measure, whether by deficiency or by excess.

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

  Reply to Objection 3: The relation of servant to master is based on the power which the master exercises over the servant; whereas, on the contrary, the relation of a son to his father or of a wife to her husband is based on the son’s affection towards his father to whom he submits himself, or on the wife’s affection towards her husband to whom she binds herself in the union of love. Hence filial and chaste fear amount to the same, because by the love of charity God becomes our Father, according to Rom. 8:15, “You have received the spirit of adoption of sons, whereby we cry: Abba [Father]”; and by this same charity He is called our spouse, according to 2 Cor. 11:2, “I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ”: whereas servile fear has no connection with these, since it does not include charity in its definition. Reply to Objection 4: These three fears regard punishment but in different ways. For worldly or human fear regards a punishment which turns man away from God, and which God’s enemies sometimes inflict or threaten: whereas servile and initial fear regard a punishment whereby men are drawn to God, and which is inflicted or threatened by God. Servile fear regards this punishment chiefly, while initial fear regards it secondarily. Reply to Objection 5: It amounts to the same whether man turns away from God through fear of losing his worldly goods, or through fear of forfeiting the well-being of his body, since external goods belong to the body. Hence both these fears are reckoned as one here, although they fear different evils, even as they correspond to the desire of different goods. This diversity causes a specific diversity of sins, all of which alike however lead man away from God. Whether worldly fear is always evil?Objection 1: It would seem that worldly fear is not always evil. Because regard for men seems to be a kind of human fear. Now some are blamed for having no regard for man, for instance, the unjust judge of whom we read (Lk. 18:2) that he “feared not God, nor regarded man.” Therefore it seems that worldly fear is not always evil. Objection 2: Further, worldly fear seems to have reference to the punishments inflicted by the secular power. Now such like punishments incite us to good actions, according to Rom. 13:3, “Wilt thou not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise from the same.” Therefore worldly fear is not always evil. Objection 3: Further, it seems that what is in us naturally, is not evil, since our natural gifts are from God. Now it is natural to man to fear detriment to his body, and loss of his worldly goods, whereby the present life is supported. Therefore it seems that worldly fear is not always evil.