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 New Testament Words (1964)

  6.24; I Peter 1.8; John 21.15, 16). Just as Jesus is the lover of the souls of men, the Christian is the lover of Christ. (vii) The mark of the Christian life is the love of Christians for one another (John 13.34; 15.12, 17; I Peter 1.22; I John 3.11, 23; I John 4.7). Christians are people who love Jesus and who love each other. The basis of every conceivable right relationship in heaven and earth is love. It is on love that all relationships, both human and divine, are founded. The NT has much to tell us about God’s love for men. (i) Love is the very nature of God. God is love (I John 4.7, 8; II Cor. 13.11). (ii) God’s love is a universal love. It was not only a chosen nation, it was the world that God so loved (John 3.16). (iii) God’s love is a sacrificial love. The proof of his love is the giving of his Son for men (I John 4.9,10; John 3.16). The guarantee of Jesus’ love is that he loved us and gave himself for us (Gal. 2.20; Eph. 5.2; Rev. 1.5). (iv) God’s love is an undeserved love. It was while we were sinners and enemies that God loved us and Jesus died for us (Rom. 5.8; I John 3.1; 4.9, 10). (v) God’s love is a merciful love (Eph. 2.4). It is not dictatorial, not domineeringly possessive; it is the yearning love of the merciful heart. (vi) God’s love is a saving and a sanctifying love (II Thess. 2.13). It rescues from the situation of the past and enables men to meet the situations of the future. (vii) God’s love is a strengthening love. In it and through it a man becomes more than a conquerer (Rom. 8.37). It is not the softening and over- protective love which makes a man weak and flabby; it is the love which makes heroes. (viii) God’s love is an inseparable love (Rom. 8.39). In the nature of things human love must come to an end, at least for a time, but God’s love outlasts all the chances and the changes and the threats of life. (ix) God’s love is a rewarding love (James 1.12; 2.5). In this life it is a precious thing, and its promises are still greater for the life to come. (x) God’s love is a chastening love (Heb. 12.6). God’s love is the love which knows that discipline is an essential part of love. The NT has much to say about what man’s love for God must be. (i) It must be an exclusive love (Matt. 6.24; cp. Luke 16.13). There is only room for one loyalty in the Christian life.

• From Dirty Pretty Things (2014)

  The New York Loft I watched as your busy fingers moved with a calm state of well-practiced precision. The little silver spoon held over a waning candle flame. White chalky dust, turning from a bubbling brown to a clear liquid poison. Drawn carefully through the virgin cigarette filter. Filling a disposable syringe. A poignant metaphor for what was fast becoming your throwaway life. “Please don’t, seriously, I beg you . . .” She gave me that look. The one that had hooked me all those years ago on that crisp autumn morning. In the forest. Long lashes flickering as her eyes fell into mine. Her reckless body pinned to the soft leafy ground . . . I watched her plunge the needle between her toes. Her lips let out a silent sigh. Head rolling back. Red hair tumbling over skinny white shoulders. Nipples poking hard against the black singlet. Legs falling apart. Eyelids closing. Body collapsing. A rag doll falling onto a lonely, unmade bed. It was a very long minute before the words appeared like ghosts, slipping through the trembling gates of a graveyard. “I know you love her.” “Yes, I do, very much,” I cautiously replied. “I know you love her . . . love her . . . love.” She drifted off into a sleep that danced a dangerous pirouette with death. I took it as my cue to leave. Exit stage right. The curtain had finally fallen on this sad little play. I did love the girl with the crooked black fringe. Who had found her way through the darkness to discover my broken heart. Her tiny, clever hands, stitching it back together. She was my forever girl. The true love of my life. A soul mate. Closing the bedroom door, I took one last look behind me and then wham. Like a diamond bullet to the brain it hit me. There was a junkie in the room and it wasn’t Sophia. Rendezvous Red heels on a pavement, punctuated by long legs striding toward me. Your lips a full stop on mine. Foreplay Your words touch me in a way I find difficult to describe, she said, although whenever I read them it feels a lot like foreplay. Last Night Normally I tend to choose my words carefully when it comes to such delicate matters. However, seeing you now, here in the moonlight, all I can think about is pulling your panties down and fucking you with your socks on. The Saddest Truth The saddest truth is realizing you have fallen madly in love with what can never be.

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

  THEOPHYLACT. See how He has enumerated all the powers of the soul; for there is a 1living power in the soul, which He explains, when He says, With all thy soul, and to this belong anger and desire, all of which He will have us give to Divine love. There is also another power, which is called natural, to which belong nutriment and growth, and this also is all to be given to God, for which reason He says, With all thy heart. There is also another power, the rational, which He calls the mind, and that too is to be given whole to God. GLOSS. (non occ.) The words which are added, And with all thy strength, may be referred to the bodily powers. It goes on: And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. THEOPHYLACT. He says that it is like, because these two commandments are harmonious one with the other, and mutually contain the other. For he who loves God, loves also His creature; but the chief of His creatures is man, wherefore he who loves God ought to love all men. But he who loves his neighbour, who so often offends him, ought much more to love Him, who is ever giving him benefits. And therefore on account of the connection between these commandments, He adds, There is none other commandment greater than these. It goes on: And the Scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God, and there is none other but he: and to love him with all the heart, and with all the soul, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. BEDE. (ubi sup.) He shews when he says, this is greater than all sacrifices, that a grave question was often debated between the scribes and Pharisees, which was the first commandment, or the greatest of the Divine law; that is, some praised offerings and sacrifices, others preferred acts of faith and love, because many of the fathers before the law pleased God by that faith only, which works by love. This scribe shews that he was of the latter opinion. But it continues, And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. THEOPHYLACT. By which He shews that he was not perfect, for He did not say, Thou art within the kingdom of heaven, but, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. BEDE. (ubi sup) But the reason why he was not far from the kingdom of God was, that he proved himself to be a favourer of that opinion, which is proper to the New Testament and to Gospel perfection.

• From New Testament Words (1964)

  It was the astonished cry of the heathen in the early days, ‘See how these Christians love one another.’ One of the severest handicaps of the modern Church is that to the outsider it must often appear to be a company of people squabbling bitterly about nothing. A church completely enveloped in the peace of mutual love is a rare phenomenon. Such a church would not be a church where everyone thought the same and agreed on everything; it would be a church in which men could differ and still love each other. (iii) The Christian love goes out to our neighbours (Matt. 19.19; 22.39; cp. Mark 12.31 and Luke 10.27; Rom. 13.9; Gal. 5.14; James 2.8). And the definition of our neighbour is simply that our neighbour is anyone who happens to be in need. As the Roman poet said: ‘I regard no human being as a stranger.’ It is the simple fact that more people have been brought into the Church by the kindness of real Christian love than by all the theological arguments in the world; and more people have been driven from the Church by the hardness and the ugliness of so-called Christianity than by all the doubts in the world. (iv) The Christian love goes out to our enemies (Luke 6.27; cp. Matt. 5.44), We have seen that Christian love means unconquerable benevolence and invincible goodwill. No matter what any man does to him, the Christian will never cease to seek that man’s nighest good. No matter how he is insulted, injured, wronged and slandered, the Christian will never hate and will never let bitterness into his heart. When Lincoln was accused of treating his opponents with too much courtesy and kindness, and when it was pointed out to him that his whole duty was to destroy them, he answered: ‘Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?’ The Christian’s only method of destroying his enemies is to love them into being his friends. We must now look at the characteristics of this Christian love. (i) Love is sincere (Rom. 12.9; II Cor. 6.6; 8.8; I Peter 1.22). It has no ulterior motive; it is not cupboard love. It is not a surface pleasantness, which cloaks an inner bitterness. It is the love which loves with open eyes and with open heart. (ii) Love is innocent (Rom. 13.10). The Christian love never injured any man. So-called love can injure in two ways. It can lead into sin. Burns said of the man whom he met when he was learning flax-dressing in Irvine: ‘His friendship did me a mischief.’ Or it can be over-possessive and over-protective. Mother love can become smother love. (iii) Love is generous (II Cor. 8.24).

• From New Testament Words (1964)

  More people are won for Christ by the appeal to the heart than to the head. Faith is born, not so much from intellectual search, as from the uplifting of the Cross of Christ. It is true that sooner or later we must think things out for ourselves; but in Christianity the heart must feel before the mind can think. (xiii) Love is the perfecting of the Christian life (Rom. 13.10; Col. 3.14; I Tim. 1.5; 6.11; I John 4.12). There is nothing higher in this world than to love. The great task of any church is not primarily to perfect its buildings or its liturgy or its music or its vestments. Its great task is to perfect its love. Finally, the NT lays it down that there are certain ways in which love can be misdirected. (i) Love of the world is misdirected love (I John 2.15). It was because Demas loved the world that he forsook Paul (II Tim. 4.10). A man can so love time that he forgets eternity. A man can so love the world’s prizes that he forgets the ultimate prizes. A man can so love the world that he accepts the world’s standards and abandons the standards of Christ. (ii) Love of personal prestige is misdirected love. The scribes and Pharisees loved the chief seats in the synagogues and the praises of men (Luke 11.43; John 12.43). A man’s question must always be, not: How does this look to men? but, How does this look to God? (iii) Love of the dark and fear of the light is the inevitable consequence of sin (John 3.19). As soon as a man sins, he has something to hide; and then he loves the dark. But the dark may conceal him from men; it cannot conceal him from God. So at the end of things we see beyond a doubt that the Christian life is built on the twin pillars of love of God and love of man. AGGAREUEIN THE WORD OF AN OCCUPIED COUNTRY There are some words which carry in their history the story of a nation’s triumph or a nation’s tragedy. Aggareuein is such a word. It is used three times in the NT, with the meaning to compel. It is the word used in Matt. 5.41 when Jesus speaks of going two miles when we are compelled to go one; and in Matt. 27.32 and Mark 15.21 it is the word that is used of Simon of Cyrene being compelled to carry the Cross of Jesus to Calvary. In origin the word is Persian; it comes from the noun aggaros, which means a ‘courier’; it became naturalized into Greek, just as the Italian word estafette has been to some extent naturalized into English with the same sense of a ‘military courier’ or an ‘express messenger’. The Persians had a remarkably efficient courier system, like an express post.

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

  Secondly, the way in which we are commanded to love our neighbour, viz. “as ourselves,” proves that our charity ought to be rightly ordered and sincere. For true and rightly ordered love prefers the greater to the lesser good. Now it is clear, that, of all human good, the welfare of the soul is the greatest: next in degree comes physical well-being; and external goods occupy the last place. It is natural to man to observe this order in his preference. For who would not rather lose bodily eyesight than the use of reason? Who would not part with all his property in order to save his life? “Skin for skin,” said Satan to the Lord, “and all that a man has he will give for his life” (Job ii. 4). Very few, if any, fail to observe this order in their preference concerning the natural goods of which we have given examples. There are, nevertheless, many who pervert this order of charity, in the case of the other goods which exist in addition to the purely natural ones of which we have spoken. They will, for instance, prefer physical health or comfort, to the acquisition of virtue or learning; and they will expose their bodies to danger and hardship, in order to gain material wealth. Now this, as we shall show more at large, is not true love. Neither do they who act thus, love themselves sincerely. It is quite clear that the chief part of a thing is really the thing itself. When we say that a city acted thus or thus, we mean that the chief citizens acted in such or such a manner. Now we know, that the principal thing in man is the soul, and that the chief among the powers or faculties of the soul, is the reason or understanding. He, therefore, who despises the good of the rational soul, for the sake of physical welfare, or of the advantage of the sensitive soul, plainly show that he does not truly love himself. “He who loves iniquity, hates his own soul” (Pa. x. 6). Now we are commanded to observe the same order in the love of our neighbour that we ought to observe in the love of ourselves. Hence we must desire his welfare in the same manner as we ought to desire our own, i.e. first his spiritual good, secondly his physical prosperity, including in the latter category such good as consists in extrinsic possessions. But, if we wish our neighbour to have material goods harmful to his health of body, or physical welfare opposed to his spiritual profit, we do not truly love him.

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

  On the first point: the cognitive power moves only through the medium of the appetitive power. Thus the notion of the universal moves us through the notion of the particular, as is said in 3 De Anima, texts 57 – 58. So also the intellectual appetite, which we call the will, moves in us through the medium of the sensitive appetite, whose action is always accompanied by some sensible change, especially in the heart, which according to the philosopher is the first principle of movement in animals (De Part. Animalium 2, ch. 1; 3, ch. 4). It is indeed because they are accompanied by bodily change that actions of the sensitive appetite are called passions, and not actions of will. Accordingly, in so far as love, joy, and delight signify actions of the sensitive appetite, they are passions. But in so far as they signify actions of the intellectual appetite, they are not passions. Now they signify the latter when referred to God. That is why the philosopher says: “ God rejoices by one, simple operation ” (7 Ethics, text ult.). God also loves in the same manner, without passion. On the second point: we must pay attention to the material element in the passions of the sensitive appetite, namely to the bodily change, and also to the formal aspect of an appetite. The material element in anger is the increase of blood around the heart, or something of the kind, while formally it is the desire for revenge. Further, the formal aspect of some passions involves a certain imperfection. Desire, for example, involves an unattained good. Sadness involves an evil which is endured, as does anger also, since it presupposes sadness. Other passions, however, such as love and joy, involve no imperfection. Now none of these can be attributed to God in respect of their material element, as we argued above. Nor can we attribute to God any passion which even formally involves imperfection, except in the metaphorical manner permissible in view of the likeness borne by an effect. (Q. 3, Art. 2; Q. ig, Art. 2.) But those which do not involve imperfection, such as love and joy, are rightly attributed to God, yet as without passion, as we have said.

• From Dirty Pretty Things (2014)

  The New York Loft I watched as your busy fingers moved with a calm state of well-practiced precision. The little silver spoon held over a waning candle flame. White chalky dust, turning from a bubbling brown to a clear liquid poison. Drawn carefully through the virgin cigarette filter. Filling a disposable syringe. A poignant metaphor for what was fast becoming your throwaway life. “Please don’t, seriously, I beg you . . .” She gave me that look. The one that had hooked me all those years ago on that crisp autumn morning. In the forest. Long lashes flickering as her eyes fell into mine. Her reckless body pinned to the soft leafy ground . . . I watched her plunge the needle between her toes. Her lips let out a silent sigh. Head rolling back. Red hair tumbling over skinny white shoulders. Nipples poking hard against the black singlet. Legs falling apart. Eyelids closing. Body collapsing. A rag doll falling onto a lonely, unmade bed. It was a very long minute before the words appeared like ghosts, slipping through the trembling gates of a graveyard. “I know you love her.” “Yes, I do, very much,” I cautiously replied. “I know you love her . . . love her . . . love. ” She drifted off into a sleep that danced a dangerous pirouette with death. I took it as my cue to leave. Exit stage right. The curtain had finally fallen on this sad little play. I did love the girl with the crooked black fringe. Who had found her way through the darkness to discover my broken heart. Her tiny, clever hands, stitching it back together. She was my forever girl. The true love of my life. A soul mate. Closing the bedroom door, I took one last look behind me and then wham. Like a diamond bullet to the brain it hit me. There was a junkie in the room and it wasn’t Sophia. Rendezvous Red heels on a pavement, punctuated by long legs striding toward me. Your lips a full stop on mine. Foreplay Your words touch me in a way I find difficult to describe, she said, although whenever I read them it feels a lot like foreplay. Last Night Normally I tend to choose my words carefully when it comes to such delicate matters. However, seeing you now, here in the moonlight, all I can think about is pulling your panties down and fucking you with your socks on. The Saddest Truth The saddest truth is realizing you have fallen madly in love with what can never be.

• From Heptaméron (1559)

  " You speak very prudently madam," replied Amadour, who had his answer ready, " and you do me so much honour and so much justice in putting the confidence in me you say, that if I were not content with such a blessing, I were unworthy of all others. Rut consider, madam, that he who wants to build a durable edifice must begin by laying a good and solid foundation. As I desire to remain for ever in your service, I think not only of the means of being near you, but also of hin- dering my attachment to you from being perceived. Though this attachment, madam, is quite pure, yet those who do not know the hearts of lovers often judge ill of them, and this gives occasion for scandal as much as if their conjectures were well founded. What makes me speak of this is, that Paulina, who knows well that I cannot love her, suspects me so much that wherever I am she has her eyes continually upon me. When you speak to me before her with so much kindness, I am so much afraid of making some gesture on which she may rest a surmise that I fall into the very thing I wish to avoid. I am therefore constrained, madam, to request you will not for the future address me so suddenly be- fore her, or before those whom you know to be as mali- cious as she is, for I would rather die than that any creat- ure living should perceive it. If your honour was less dear to me, I should not have been in haste to say this to you, since I am so happy in the love and the con- fidence you manifest towards me, that I desire nothing more than their continuance." Florida was so gratified that she could hardly con- tain herself, and thenceforth she felt in her heart emo- tions that were new to her. " Virtue and good breeding reply for me," she said, " and grant you what you re- quest." First day\ QUEEN OF NAVARRK. %\ That Amadour was transported with joy will not be doubted by any who love. Florida followed his advice bet- ter than he could have wished ; for as she was timid not only in presence of Paulina, but everywhere else too, she no longer sought his society as she had been used to do. She even disapproved of his intercourse with Paulina, who seemed to her so handsome that she could not believe he did not love her. Florida vented her grief with Aventurada, who was beginning to be very jealous of her husband and Paulina. She poured out her lamen- tations to Florida, who, being sick of the same distemper, consoled her as well as she could.

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

  3. He poured His Blood from the wound in His side and Heart for life and warmth. He has disciples doubtful in the faith, and many others greatly tempted as to faith and morals, that is, as to the things they must believe and the things they must do. These are cold and as it were dead. But He does two things: a, He warms them and gives them life; b, when they live again by His Blood He shows them the heavenward road, that they may run swiftly after Him. a. For this reason His side was opened, in which is the life of man, that He may warm the cold in faith and quicken to a holy life those that are as good as dead. So He was made like a pelican in the desert. Now, it is said of the pelican that she feeds her young ones with her blood. Jesus, with the Blood of His Heart, helps the cold in faith and the dead in sins. b. To those who live again by His wound He shows the road to Heaven, and teaches them that they must follow it. He calls to the soul to look at Him wounded for it, to see His Blood, and to follow Him. He showed His wounds to His disciples after His resurrection, not only that He might strengthen them in faith, but also that He might teach them about the sufferings through which they must go. Fly, therefore, from delights of the flesh, and follow Jesus in His Passion. Ask Him to go before you, that by His wounded Heart and Blood-sprinkled footsteps He may show you the road in which the wayfarers cannot err, and give you strength to walk in it till you know Him as you are known, and drink in the pleasures at His right hand for evermore. The Voice of the Holy Ghost (3) About the might of the Blood of Jesus; He hath loved us and washed us from our sins in His own Blood, and hath made us a kingdom and priests to God and His Father: to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. Apoc. 1:5, 6. 1. The destruction of the devil; Canst Thou draw out the Leviathan with a hook, or canst Thou tie his tongue with a cord?.… Lay Thy hand upon him; remember the battle, and speak no more. Job 40:20, 27. Daniel said, I adore the Lord my God, for He is the living God; but that (the dragon) is no living god. But give me leave, O king, and I will kill this dragon without sword or club. And the king said, I give thee leave. Then Daniel took pitch and fat and hair and boiled them together, and put them in the dragon’s mouth; and the dragon burst asunder. And he said, Behold him whom ye worshipped. Dan. 14:24–26.

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

  It is clear, likewise, that every man does, by nature, love himself truly, in so far as to wish benefits to himself, happiness, for instance, virtue, knowledge, and the necessaries of life. But those things of which he avails himself he does not truly love in themselves; rather, he loves the service they render him, and he prefers himself to them. Now this proposition is as true with regard to persons, as it is with regard to things. We love some men only because they are of use to us; and when this is the case, it is evident that we do not truly love them as we love ourselves. He that loves another because he is of service to him, or affords him gratification, proves that he loves himself. As he seeks only convenience and profit from his friend and not his friend himself, he can only be said to love his friend in the sense in which we are said to love wine or horses, i.e. not as ourselves by wishing well to them, but rather as valuing them as an advantage to ourselves. It is not difficult to prove, that sincerity is necessary to perfect charity. We see this, first, from the precept which bids us to love our neighbour as ourselves. “The end of the commandment is charity from a pure heart, and a good conscience, and an unfeigned faith,” says St. Paul (1 Tim. 1:5). Again he says, “Charity seeketh not her own” (1 Cor. 13:5), but wishes well to those whom she loves. He gives his own example, as a lesson of charity, “not seeking that which is profitable to myself, but to many, that they may be saved” (1 Cor. 10:33).

• From New Testament Words (1964)

  Surely there is no more gracious group of words than this. The Christian shares in the manhood of all men; he shares in the common experience of joy and tears; he shares in the things divine and in the glory that shall be; and all his life he must be a sharer of all he has, for he knows that his true wealth lies in what he gives away. LEITOURGIA THE CHRISTIAN SERVICE Leitourgia, from which comes our English word ‘liturgy’, and its kindred words form a group of words of unsurpassed interest. In classical and Hellenistic Greek these words go through four stages of meaning. (i) In the very early days leitourgein, the verb, meant to undertake some service of the state voluntarily and of one’s own free will, voluntarily to shoulder some public task in order patriotically to serve the state. (ii) Later leitourgein came to mean to perform the services which the State laid upon citizens specially qualified to perform them. The services were the same, but now instead of being voluntary they have become compulsory. Certain duties were liable to be laid on any citizen who possessed more than three talents, that is about £700. Four typical such duties were: (a) Chorēgia, which meant the supplying of all the expenses to maintain and train a chorus for the great dramatic performances. (b) Gymnasarchia, which meant the paying of the expenses involved in the training of outstanding athletes for the games, (c) Architheōria, which was the defraying of the expenses of embassies sent out by the state on solemn or sacred occasions. (d) Triērarchia, which meant the shouldering of all the expenses of a trireme or warship in time of national crisis. Still later, especially in Egypt, nearly all municipal duties were leitourgiai. The state picked out a suitable man and laid on him the duty of serving in some capacity his town or village or county. (iii) Still later leitourgein came to describe any kind of service. It is used, for instance, of dancing girls, flute-players, musicians who are hired for some entertainment; of a workman working for any master; and even, strangely enough, of a prostitute giving her services, (iv) In NT times leitourgein was the regular word for the service that a priest or servant rendered in a temple of the gods. So we read of Thaues and Taous, the twins, who serve in the great temple of Serapis at Memphis’. In the NT the words have three main uses. (i) They are used of the service rendered by man to man. So Paul, when he is set on taking the collection for the poor saints of Jerusalem, uses leitourgein and leitourgia (Rom. 15.27; II Cor. 9.12). He uses them of the service of the Philippians and of Epaphroditus to himself (Phil. 2.17, 30). To serve others is a ‘liturgy’ laid on the citizen of the Kingdom by God.

• From Dirty Pretty Things (2014)

  Hentai We found ourselves, as we often did, sprawled out under the covers of our unmade bed. You, lying on your stomach, laptop open, clicking on Hentai. Me, peering over your bare shoulders, touching a nipple, making it hard, like I always do. I can hear you breathing, the subtle excitement building with each exhale. My hand reaching down, busy fingers pulling your panties off. A little moan escaping from your tiny mouth. English subtitles play catch up with the singsong Japanese voice-over as an animated girl with wide eyes and ridiculously large tits gets fucked up against a wall in a bathhouse. Your eyes close for a moment, my wet fingers sliding softly in and out of you. I slam shut the laptop. You get up onto your knees, back arched, long black hair slowly falling over your face, my hand pushing your head deep into the pillow. I get behind you, my cock teasing your pussy and forcing its way in as you bite down on your lip. We fuck hard and fast. Just how you like it. Your thighs making loud slapping noises against mine. Suddenly you let out a muffled scream into the pillow, the orgasm catching you by surprise, the spasms gripping my cock tighter as I explode inside you . We lay on our backs, eyes looking up at the rainbow patterns dancing across the ceiling. Your hand clutching mine. “Do you want some ice cream?” I have a habit of asking peculiar questions at times like this. “Okay,” you reply. You watch as I climb out of bed, tipping the cat off the covers as I reach for my dressing gown. Before I open the bedroom door, I stop and turn around. “l love you.” “I love you too,” you whisper, flipping open the laptop. The Hentai clip starts playing again. A chubby animated man wearing a white towel is peeping through a crack in the window, watching two naked girls on their knees, scrubbing the wooden floors of the bathhouse with wire brushes. You pause the scene, your smile reflected in the screen. Waiting for me to return. Ruin Me I’m the kind of girl who has a restless mind and impatient legs . . . I watched as her fingers nervously flicked the well-worn elastic of her white cotton panties. I want you to ruin me. The Wish Every time you take a sip, your lips wet with wine, I wish I was that glass. Deeper Every time you open your eyes I fall deeper in love with the story they tell.

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

  c. The buying of heavenly riches; Fields shall be bought for money, and deeds shall be written and sealed, and witnesses shall be taken … round about Jerusalem, in the cities of Juda; … for I will bring back their captivity, saith the Lord. Jerem. 32:44. The kingdom of Heaven is like to a merchant seeking pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went his way and sold all that he had and bought it. St. Matt. 13:45, 46. N. He that eateth this Bread shall live for ever. St. John 6:59. Prayer My Jesus, I am going to receive Thy adorable Body and Blood in the Sacrament of Thy love. My Jesus, I have many things to ask Thee. Hear me, dearest Lord, and answer my prayer, according to Thy Will. O Son of God, destroy all sin in me by Thy cleansing might. O Son of God, wash my heart, and make it whiter than snow, by Thy cleansing Blood. O Son of God, weaken in me all desires of the flesh, by the dew of Thy Heart. O Son of God, drive far from my soul every thought that is dark, by Thy brightness and by the flames of Thy love. O Son of Man, pour out Thy grace on my soul without stint, that I may live and grow in Thee. O Son of Man, adorn my soul for Thyself with all gifts of chastity. O Son of Man, fill me with Thy love, that my soul may be all aflame with desire for Thee. O Son of Man, let me taste and know how sweet Thou art. O Jesus, God and man, strengthen my soul, and grant that by Thy grace it may stand against the evil in rocky might. O Jesus, God and man, give me grace to trust in Thee, that so all devils may be driven far away. O Jesus, God and man, help me by Thy Passion to bear all pain and sorrow gladly, and always to kiss most lovingly Thy chastening hand. O Jesus, God and man, give me grace to do good works pleasing to Thee. My Saviour, let me do works of mercy in Thee, and get great gain for my soul and buy many heavenly treasures. Thou, my Saviour, the treasure of treasures, art coming to me now. Thanksgiving My Lord and my Love, I thank Thee for Thy heavenly gift. Thou art now within me, Body and Blood and Soul and Godhead. Now I carry God in my body; and I pray that I may be Thine for ever. My Lord and my Love, Thou hast visited me with blessing, and Thou dost crown my heart with gladness. Thou, my Heavenly Spouse, hast come into my garden; let Thy sunshine and rain fall upon it, that it may be a watered garden, whose waters do not fail.

• From New Testament Words (1964)

  4. By far the commonest NT words for love are the noun agapē and the verb agapan. We shall deal, first, with the noun. Agapē is not a classical word at all; it is doubtful if there is any classical instance of it. In the Septuagint it is used 14 times of sexual love (e.g. Jer. 2.2.) and twice (e.g. Eccles. 9.1) it is used as the opposite of misos, which means hatred. Agapē has not yet become a great word but there are hints of what is to come. The Book of Wisdom uses it for the love of God (Wisdom 3.9) and for the love of wisdom (Wisdom 6.18). The Letter of Aristeas in talking of beauty says (229) that piety is closely connected with beauty, for ‘it is the pre-eminent form of beauty, and its power lies in love (agapē) which is the gift of God’. Philo uses agapē once in its nobler sense. He says that phobos (fear) and agapē (love) are kindred feelings and that both are characteristic of man’s feeling towards God. But we can only find scattered and rare occurrences of this word agapē, which is to become the very key word of NT ethics. Now we turn to the verb agapan. It occurs oftener in classical Greek than the noun, but it is not very common. It can mean to greet affectionately. It can describe the love of money or of precious stones. It can be used for being content with some thing or some situation. It is even used once (Plutarch, Pericles, 1) to describe a society lady caressing a pet lap-dog. But, the great difference between philein and agapan in classical Greek is that agapan has none of the warmth that characterizes philein. There are two good instances of this. Dio Cassius reports Antony’s famous speech about Caesar, and he says (44.48). ‘You loved (philein) him as a father, and you held him in regard (agapan) as a benefactor.’ Philein describes the warm love for a father; agapan describes the affectionate gratitude for a benefactor. In the Memorabilia Xenophon describes how Aristarchus took a problem to Socrates. Owing to war conditions he has fourteen female relatives, displaced persons, billeted on him. They have nothing to do and, not unnaturally, there is trouble. Socrates advises him to set them to work, gentlefolk or not. Aristarchus does and the situation is solved. ‘There were happy instead of gloomy faces; they loved (philein) him as a protector; he regarded them with affection (agapan) because they were useful’. (Xenophon, Memorabilia 2.7.12). Once again there is a warmth in philein which is not in agapan.

• From Heptaméron (1559)

  " Much I care what name men give me," said Enna- suite ; " only let me have God's pardon and my husband's too, there is no reason why I should wish to die." " If this lady loved her husband as she ought," said Dagoucin, " I am surprised she did not die of grief at looking upon the bones of him whom her crime had brought to death." " Why, Dagoucin," said Simontault, " have you yet to learn that women know neither love nor regret ?" 304 THE HEPTAMERON OF THE \Nmet ^x " Yes," he replied, " for I have never ventured to prove their love for fear of finding it less than I should have wished." " You live, then, on faith and hope," said Normerfide, " as the plover lives on wind. You are easily kept," " I content myself with the love I feel in my own heart," he replied, " and with the hope that there is the same in the hearts of ladies. But if I was quite sure that that love corresponded to my hope, I should feel a pleasure so extreme that I could not sustain it and live." " Keep yourself safe from the plague," said Geburon, " for as for the other malady, I warrant you against it. But let us see to whom Madame Oisille will give her voice." " I give it," she said, " to Simontault, who I know will spare no one." " That is as much as to say that I am rather given to evil speaking," said he. " I shall, nevertheless, let you see that people who have been regarded in that same light have yet spoken the truth. I believe, ladies, you are not so simple as to put faith in everything a person tells you, however sanctified an air he may assume, un- less the proof is clear beyond doubt. Many an abuse is committed under the guise of a miracle. Therefore I intend to relate to you a story not less honourable to a religious prince than shameful to a wicked minister ol the church." Fourth iiay.\ QUEEN OF NAVARRE. 305 NOVEL XXXIII. Incest of a priest, who got his sister with child under the cloak of sanctity, and how it was punished.

• From New Testament Words (1964)

  Christian agapē is impossible for anyone except a Christian man. No man can perform the Christian ethic until he becomes a Christian. He may see quite clearly the desirability of the Christian ethic; he may see that it is the solution to the world’s problems; mentally he may accept it; practically he cannot live it, until Christ lives in him. (ii) When we understand what agapē means, it amply meets the objection that a society based in this love would be a paradise for criminals, and that it means simply letting the evil-doer have his own way. If we seek nothing but a man’s highest good, we may well have to resist a man; we may well have to punish him; we may well have to do the hardest things to him—for the good of his immortal soul. But the fact remains that whatever we do to that man will never be purely vindictive; it will never even be merely retributory; it will always be done in that forgiving love which seeks, not the man’s punishment, and still less the man’s annihilation, but always his highest good. In other words, agapē means treating men as God treats them —and that does not mean allowing them unchecked to do as they like. When we study the NT we find that love is the basis of every perfect relationship in heaven and in earth. (i) Love is the basis of the relationship between the Father and the Son, between God and Jesus. Jesus can speak of ‘the love wherewith thou hast loved me’ (John 17.26). He is God’s ‘dear Son’ (Col. 1.13; cf. John 3.35; 10.17; 15.9; 17.23, 24). (ii) Love is the basis of the relationship between the Son and the Father. The purpose of Jesus’ whole life was that ‘the world may know that he loves the Father’ (John 14.31). (iii) Love is God’s attitude to men (John 3.16; Rom. 8.37; Rom. 5.8; Eph. 2.4; II Cor. 13.14; I John 3.1, 16; I John 4.9, 10). Sometimes Christianity is presented in such a way that it looks as if it was the work of a gentle and a loving Jesus to pacify a stern and an angry God, as if Jesus did something which changed the attitude of God to men. The NT knows nothing of that. The whole process of salvation began because God so loved the world. (iv) It is man’s duty to love God (Matt. 22.37; cp. Mark 12.30 and Luke 10.27; Rom. 8.28; I Cor. 2.9; II Tim. 4.8; I John 4.19). Christianity does not think of a man finally submitting to the power of God; it thinks of him as finally surrendering to the love of God. It is not that man’s will is crushed, but that man’s heart is broken. (v) The motive power of Jesus’ life was love for men (Gal. 2.20; Eph. 5.2; II Thess. 2.16; Rev. 1.5; John 15.9). Jesus is indeed the lover of the souls of men.

• From Dirty Pretty Things (2014)

  Sunday at the Cemetery It has been said that to wear a scarlet dress in a cemetery can attract the spirit of a lover long dead. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . If you were taken from me, from this place I call our world, I would not cry, or even sigh, wring my hands, or wonder why. Instead you’d find me waiting, ever by your side, every single second, this rule I do abide. Whatever did this girl possess? The question they will pose, to make her wear the scarlet dress and hold a ruby rose. If you were given to me, from this place I call your heart, I would not cry, or even sigh, wring my hands, or wonder why. A Parting Gift I cannot sleep, I cannot cry, I cannot even wonder why. You broke my heart, will I be missed? Red ribbons wrapped around my wrist. Perfect Timing Sometimes you make me feel like a clock perched on a dusty shelf, she said. Counting down the hours, the minutes and seconds until we meet again. And when we do, the hands become my legs. Forever stuck on 4:40 p.m. Smitten Oh to be smitten, tangled by silly cuteness, like a ball of red wool, chased by a kitten. My lemon meringue pie, sugary sweet, with a trace of playful sour. Let’s catch our summer butterflies, blue skies, radiant above. Two foolish fools falling — in love, with love. Sunday Enlightenment I am afraid of the dark, she said. I am your torch, he replied.

• From Blue Like Jazz (2003)

  Him again, where they were going to stretch Him out on a cross, something shifted within me. I remember it was cold outside, crisp, and the leaves in the trees of the park across the street were getting tired and dry. And I remember sitting at my desk, and I don’t know what it was that I read or what Jesus was doing in the book, but I felt a love for Him rush through me, through my back and into my chest. I started crying, too, like that guy Bill Bright. I remember thinking that I would follow Jesus anywhere, that it didn’t matter what He asked me to do. He could be mean to me; it didn’t matter, I loved Him, and I was going to follow Him. I think the most important thing that happens within Christian spirituality is when a person falls in love with Jesus. Sometimes when I go forward at church to take Communion, to take the bread and dip it in the wine, the thought of Jesus comes to me, the red of His blood or the smell of His humanity, and I eat the bread and I wonder at the mystery of what I am doing, that somehow I am one with Christ, that I get my very life from Him, my spiritual life comes from His working inside me, being inside me. I know our culture will sometimes understand a love for Jesus as weakness. There is this lie floating around that says I am supposed to be able to do life alone, without any help, without stopping to worship something bigger than myself. But I actually believe there is something bigger than me, and I need for there to be something bigger than me. I need someone to put awe inside me; I need to come second to someone who has everything figured out. All great characters in stories are the ones who give their lives to something bigger than themselves. And in all of the stories I don’t find anyone more noble than Jesus. He gave His life for me, in obedience to His Father. I truly love Him for it. I feel that, and so does Laura and Penny and Rick and Tony the Beat Poet. I think the difference in my life came when I realized, after reading those Gospels, that Jesus didn’t just love me out of principle; He didn’t just love me because it was the right thing to do. Rather, there was something inside me that caused Him to love me. I think I realized that if I walked up to His campfire, He would ask me to sit down, and He would ask me my story. He would take the time to listen to my ramblings or my anger until I could calm down, and then He would look me directly in the eye, and He would speak to me; He would tell me the truth, and I would sense in his voice and in the lines on

• From Heptaméron (1559)

  sicians, a class of men on whose hands hangs not the health of men, began to despair on account of an ob' struction of the spleen, which rendered her melancholy, and they advised the husband to warn his wife to think of her conscience, saying that she was in the hands of God ; as if people in good health were not there also. The husband, who was excessively fond of his wife, was so overwhelmed at this news that he wrote, for his own consolation, to M. D'Avannes, begging he would take the trouble to come and see them, in the hope that his presence would be a comfort to the patient. M. D'Avan- nes, on receipt of the letter, instantly started off post- haste, and on entering the house, he found the domestics of both sexes as full of grief for their mistress as she deserved. Shocked at what he saw, he remained at the door as if paralyzed, until his good father came and em- braced him with tears, and without being able to utter a word, led him to the sick woman's chamber. Turning her languid eyes full upon him, she held out her hand, and drew hira towards her with all the little strength left her. " The moment is come, my lord," she said, embracing him, "when all dissimulation must cease, and I must declare to you the truth I have had so much difficulty in concealing ; it is, that if you have had much love for me, I have had no less for you. But my pain is greater than yours, because I have been compelled to hide it. Conscience and honour have never allowed me to declare to you the sentiments of my heart, for fear of augment- ing in you a passion which I wished to diminish. But know, my lord, that the no which I have said to you so often, and which it has cost me so much pain to pro- nounce, is the cause of my death. I die with satis- faction, since, by God's grace, notwithstanding the 2 68 THE HEPTAMERON OF THE \Ncrcel 2^