"You Are My Valentine," says the Lord!

How "beautiful you are, my love, how beautiful you are" (Song of Songs 1: 15)!
As "a lily among thistles, so is my love among the maidens (Song of Songs 2: 2).
Pleasantly, "In his longed-for shade I am seated..." (Song of Songs 2: 3).
Pleased am I that "the banner he raises over me is love" (Song of Songs 2: 4).
Yes, "My beloved lifts up his voice, he says to me, 'Come...my lovely one, come'" (Song of Songs 2: 10).


Vineyards "are in flower." "Come, then, my love, my lovely one, come" (Song of Songs 2:15 & 13)
Alas, "let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet and you face is beautiful" (Song of Songs 2: 14).
Lo, I ask you to "be my beloved," says the Lord (Song of Songs 2:17).
Enclosed, are we, in a garden of love--God's love! "Let my beloved come onto his garden, let him taste its rarest fruits" (Song of Songs 4: 16)!
No way will I give myself totally to anyone but to my Beloved:  "I am my Beloved's, and His desire is for me" (song of songs 7:11).
To me, Jesus says: "Open to me...my love, my dove, my perfect one...." (Song of songs 5: 2).
I "am my Beloved's, and my Beloved is mine. He pastures his flock among the lilies" (Song of Songs 6": 2)
Now, again, hear the Lord say to you: "How beautiful you are, how charming, my love, my delight" (Song of Songs 6: 7).
Every day, I ask God to "set me like a seal on your heart, like a seal on your arm. For love is strong as death,...The flash of it is a flash of four, a flame of Yahweh Himself. Local no flood can quench, no torrents drown" (Song of Songs 8: 6-7).
'So, I will seek the Lord who seeks me, His beloved!

Daily awakened, I will listen for my Beloved's voice of love!
Always in need of love, I know that my Beloved lives within me, walks beside me, and behind me, hemming my in and keeping me from harm.
Yes, my Beloved is always with me as Lover, as Redeemer and Sanctifier!

God's Tender Love and Deep Compassion

Today’s readings abound with statements of God’s love, a love that is eternal and is practical. God’s love brought us into existence, put us together in our mother’s womb, taught us to walk and talk, to think and understand, to feel and respond with compassion.  “I fostered [you] like one who raised an infant to his cheeks; …though I stooped to feed [you, you] did not know that I was [your] healer’( Hosea 11: 1, 3-4, 8c-9).  God goes on to say “My heart is overwhelmed, my pity stirred…I will not give vent to my blazing anger” when I see you walk away from Me, the Source of your life. I will not blaze out in anger toward you when I see you worshipping false gods, looking for fullness of life in empty cisterns; mocking Me, beating me, abusing Me, cursing Me,” as you do whenever you do these things to your family members, loved ones, strangers, your neighbour, persons different from you because of race, gender, or culture (cf. Mt. 25: 40). God seems to be reminding us that He is as hidden in the other person as He is in the Sacred Host.   My faith tells me that every human being, all of creation, is a sacrament, a sign of God’s  love for me, of  God’s Presence, of God’s life-giving Spirit, for in God,  “we live and move and have out being” (Acts 17:28). What does your faith tell you?

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the feast of God’s love. The second person of the Blessed Trinity, God the Son, in total obedience to the Father assumed human nature to show us the way back to the Father, that is, the way of obedience to our God.  In total self-giving, Jesus becomes the unblemished Lamb sacrificed to redeem all of humankind and so we pray at every Mass, the Lamb’s Supper, when the heavens open up and the Son of God comes down upon our altars:  “Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.”  Such love! What sacrifices am I willing to make in return for this love?

God awesome love and wanting to bond with us

In today’s Gospel, Jesus says to us: “As the Father has love me, so I have loved you”  (John 15:9).          How has the Father loved Jesus?  Jesus, John tells us in John 1:3 is the one through whom everything comes into existence.  To involve the Son in the act of creation reveals God’s love, respect and confidence in Jesus. Jesus’ love of us is similar. In effect, He, too, says to us: “I love you so much that I invite you to be a co-creator with me.  I want to create new life, new hope and a deeper love in the world through you. In fact, I invite you to partner with me in reconciling differences, healing wounds, building bridges between the rich and the poor, the oppressed and the oppressor, the deaf and those who hear (those spiritually deaf), the blind and those who see (again more than physical blindness). Just as the Father said to me at my baptism in the Jordan:  ‘This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased,' I say the same to you.  I want to share with you the bond and the love that exists between the Father and Me. We are one. I want to be one with you as well so that "your joy will be complete" (John 15:11).

Are you willing to be Jesus’ partner or do you want to go it alone?