Time and again, the Bible reminds us that love is the greatest virtue we can hold. It is love for our neighbour, our families, our friends, but above all, Jesus declares: “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart.” This, He tells us, is the greatest commandment.
Yet, we cannot love God fully without His help. Within each of us, He has planted a deep longing to love Him, a longing that must be nurtured in order to grow. Just as a musician improves through dedicated practice, and a rower (as in our painting) becomes more skilled with each stroke, so too does our love for God deepen the more we give ourselves to Him. The more we seek Him, the more we will love Him... until our hearts, like the mother’s embrace in this painting, reflect the love that God first poured into us.
--Fr. Patrick van der Vorst
Image & quotation source: Mary Cassatt, The Boating Party (1894). https://christian.art/daily-gospel-reading/mark-12-28b-34-2025/
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