No end of love

Whenever I groan within myself and think how hard it is to keep writing about love in these times of tension and strife which may, at any moment, become for us all a time of terror, I think to myself: "What else is the world interested in?" What else do we all want, each one of us, except to love and be loved, in our families, in our work, in all our relationships? God is love. Love casts out fear. Even the most ardent revolutionist, seeking to change the world, to overturn the tables of the money changers, is trying to make a world where it is easier for people to love, to stand in that relationship to each other. We want with all our hearts to love, to be loved.... When you love people, you see all the good in them, all the Christ in them. God sees Christ, his son, in us and loves us. And so we should see Christ in others, and nothing else, and love them. There can never be enough of it.

Dorothy Day On Pilgrimage

Bigger isn't better

Bigger is better, so we hear.  We live in a world that wants things larger and larger.  We want to supersize our fries, sodas, SUVs and church buildings.  Cities build bigger stadiums and conventions want to draw the biggest crowds.  Amid all the supersizing, I want to make a modest suggestion:  our goal should be not to get larger and larger but to get smaller and smaller.  I think of the kingdom of God as bubbling up from the bottom rather than trickling down from the top.  Contrary to the pattern of the world, it is like a mustard seed.  To enter it, we must become like a little child.  God is indeed taking over the world, but it is happening through little acts of love.

Shane ClaiborneThe Irresistible Revolution