By Hal Green
Pondering Prayer
To know God is to love God. As God draws near, your heart, seemingly of itself, arises with love unspeakable in response. You do not have to think or decide to love God; God is love itself. Hence, the love arising in you as God becomes present to you, is also God arising in you.
French priest St. John Vianney (1786-1859), who became the patron saint of parish priests, understood this equation between God and love. For him, the meaning of life was to love God above all, in all, and through all. His passionate love prayer brings beauty to the soul of the person who prays it:
“I love You, O my God, and my only desire is to love You until the last breath of my life.
I love You, O my infinitely lovable God, and I would rather die loving You, than live without loving You. I love You, Lord and the only grace I ask is to love You eternally . . . My God, if my tongue cannot say in every moment that I love You, I want my heart to repeat it to You as often as I draw breath.”
More than merely loving, I am in love with the God I have encountered. With St. John Vianney, I too seek to love God all the way, always. This is my prayer of love commitment:
“May I not speak of You save with words of love. You are not an object for casual discussion; You are the daily Subject of my life.”
“May I not speak of You with anything but love’s tones and timbres, toward any end but love’s design.”
“More than love You . . . I remain irrevocably in love with You, the God of all creation. Yet who am I to dare to make such a claim, to be in love with You, in love as a tree with the sky toward which it reaches, or a river with the sea toward which it flows?”
“Did You not know my heart would follow after You in spirit if not in body, once I met You? Did You not know I would want nothing more than to live with You in this love, than to share a common life with You? Did you not know You would become my farthest aim and Beloved above all else?”
“I speak to You with words of love because they are the only words worthy of You, the only words which may attain an audience with You.”
“Heaven is the home of those in love with You. Heaven is the home of those who will not speak of You save with words of love.”
I invite you to pray that the love of God for you, once received, may in turn become the love of God, from you. Then God’s holy circle of love will be complete, love from God returning to God as love for God from you.
(Hal Green, Ph.D., is author of Pray This Way to Connect with God. You can contact him at drhalgreen@gmail.com.)
