Worthy to be loved

Our job is to love others

without stopping to inquire

whether or not they are worthy.

That is not our business and, in fact,

it is nobody's business.

What we are asked to do is to love,

and this love itself will render both ourselves

and our neighbors worthy.

-Thomas Merton

Today, I presented at Seattle U's School of Theology and Ministry on 'Yoga, Spirituality, and Health.' It was well received. Father Pat Kelly, SJ, is so delightfully welcoming. I felt at home right away. We were on the floor most of the time. Shoes off to remind ourselves that wherever we seek God is holy ground. Even when waiting for that latte, in the bathroom brushing your teeth, or at the office dealing with a difficult co-worker.

I remember one of my earliest spiritual guides, Fr Pat O'Leary, SJ, telling me that the world is my monastery and wherever I am is my cell. That quieted my disappointment of not being able to become a monk anymore.

But Merton's call to love is far more challenging I think than becoming a monk. Inside a monastery or not, the call to love others unconditionally is the challenge I want to tackle. Even for short periods of time, I want to experience that, and to share that love. Human love is very limiting. It's like holding your breath forever. You just can't. You can't be loving all the time. But perhaps, when I love at that moment, can I just love without condition, without reservation, with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my mind, with all my strength? Help me, my Beloved. Teach me how to love as you love us.

How about you?  Has your spiritual practice enabled you to love more fully, less conditionally? What needs to happen for you to be more loving, more compassionate?

God has entrusted to us the news of reconciliation.

So we are ambassadors for Christ;

It is as through God were appealing through us,

and the appeal that we make in Christ's name is:

be reconciled to God.

-2 Cor 5:19-20