Simply Amazing...

Ron and I are married 40 years today! Through the years we have had our ups, downs, saddness and joys, yet there is no one with whom I would rather spend my time and my life. He is my very best friend!

So it is on this morning I began my reflection from Praying With Saint Paul, edited by Father Peter John Cameron, O.P. Actually, I was reading ahead, when much to my delight I found what I was reading must have been written for just Ron and me. And it brings comfort and joy, knowing that all these years the "Light" of Christ is the beacon by which we have been guided and secure. So it is, to family and friends, I say thank you, too.

Love and Service
John Janaro

"Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ."
(Ephesians 5: 21)

This text establishes the ultimate contrast not only for most intimate human relationships (those within the family , and especially those between husband and wife) but also for all human relationships. Human beings are called to live in communion with one another with a unity that comes from God and reflects his glory. Thus human relationships witness to the mystery of God insofar as they are constituted by love. Love is simple, and yet in this life it seems to complicated even for Christians. We are commanded to "love one another" and yet this love seems like an ideal to strive for rather than an established reality among us (thus we are exhorted to "forgive one another" continually). The "new law" of life in the Spirit is, indeed, a law of love. What is the real mystery of love? The law of love is self-giving. It is affirmation of the other person in a way that made the lover transcend himself and place himself "at the disposal" of the beloved. The radical nature of love in any relationship consists in each person giving himself to the other in love, and divesting himself of self-centeredness in order to "make space" for the one who is loved. Thus each person becomes capable of giving himself fully and receiving the gift of the other person by "emptying" himself. Christian "subordination" is defined ultimately by the self-giving love of Jesus Christ. The One who created all things freely took the lowest place in order to give himself to everyone and made space withing himself for everyone. Human being find themselves in a variety of relationships that imply different kinds and different levels of "authority" and "obedience." Christian love transforms both into self-surrendering love of Jesus, in whom we discover that "to server is to reign."

Almighty God, transform all our relationships according to the pattern of Jesus ' obedience to you and to the gift of himself to us

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Thanks Be to God!!!

~~^j^~~