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Take time to read and meditate on this passage from the book, Dialogues of Catherine Siena during Lent
"In
this way will she (St. Catherine of Siena) feel the fire of My love in
herself, because love of her neighbor is developed out of love of Me --
that is, out of that learning which the soul obtained by knowing herself
and My goodness in her. When, therefore, she sees herself to be
ineffably loved by Me, she loves every rational creature with the
self-same love with which she sees herself to be loved. And, for this
reason, the soul that knows Me immediately expands to the love of her
neighbor, because she sees that I love that neighbor ineffably, and so,
herself, loves the object which she sees Me to have loved still more.
She further knows that she can be of no use to Me and can in no way
repay Me that pure love with which she feels herself to be loved by Me,
and therefore endeavors to repay it through the medium which I have
given her, namely, her neighbor, who is the medium through which you can
all serve Me. For, as I have said to you, you can perform all virtues
by means of your neighbor, I having given you all creatures, in general
and in particular, according to the diverse graces each has received
from Me, to be ministered unto by you; you should therefore love them
with the same pure love with which I have loved you. That pure love
cannot be returned directly to Me, because I have loved you without
being Myself loved, and without any consideration of Myself whatsoever,
for I loved you without being loved by you -- before you existed; it
was, indeed, love that moved Me to create you to My own image and
similitude. This love you cannot repay to Me, but you can pay it to My
rational creature, loving your neighbor without being loved by him and
without consideration of your own advantage, whether spiritual or
temporal, but loving him solely for the praise and glory of My Name,
because he has been loved by Me."
"Thus will you fulfill the commandment of the law, to love Me above everything, and your neighbor as yourselves.
