Divine Love

http://catholicharboroffaithandmorals.com/Challoner_Love%20of%20God%20Part1.html

On the Great Commandment of Divine Love
by Richard Challoner, 1807

Consider first, those words of the divine law, ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength. This (says the Lord) is the greatest, and the first commandment,’ Matt. xxii. 39. Yes, my soul, it is the greatest of all the commandments of God, and that which he takes most of all to heart, since He has made our souls to His own image and likeness, to this very end that we should love Him, and should dedicate our whole being to His divine love, for all the time of our pilgrimage here upon earth, that so we might come to be happily united to Him in an eternal band of love in his heavenly kingdom. O the excellent dignity of this divine commandment, which tends directly and immediately to raise our souls above this earth, and above the heaven of heavens, and the whole created universe, and to bring them to the God that made heaven and earth, and to unite them to Him by a most perfect love, both for time and eternity.

Consider 2ndly, the incomprehensible goodness of God is manifested to us in this commandment, in His insisting so much upon our loving Him, and upon our tending with all our power to a union with Him. Is then our love of any consequence to Him? Or can we add any thing to His happiness, by loving Him? Or will He lose any thing, if we refuse Him our love? And what is there in us poor little ants, if compared to His infinite majesty, that He should concern himself whether we love Him or not? Would it not be an unspeakable favour to us, that He should even suffer us, considering who He is, and who we are, to aspire so high as to pretend to His love? But that this great God should make it a commandment–and the very first and principal of all His commandments–that we should love Him, and love Him with our whole heart; that He should insist upon our entering into this league of eternal friendship with Him, promising all happiness for eternity upon our compliance, and threatening us with most dreadful and eternal evils if we love Him not; ’tis this that shows forth and sets in so wonderful a light the goodness of our God and His love for us that we should be not only most wretched, insensible, and ungrateful beyond expression, but even in some sense worse than devils, if we should refuse Him our love.

Consider 3rdly, the excellence of this commandment of divine love, with regard to the fruits it brings to our souls. Divine love is the queen of virtues. She never comes alone, but brings all other virtues along with her; she gives life to them all; even faith and hope are dead when she is not in their company. She brings with her the remission of all our sins; she makes us the friends and favourites of the Most High; she makes us His children, His spouses, His temples she is the ‘band of all perfection.’ O my soul, how glorious it is, how happy, how delightful, to be thus united to thy God by a strict band of friendship and love! O embrace then, with all thy powers, this great commandment, which, by obliging thee to give thy whole self up to the love of God, brings down thy God with all his treasures to thee.

Conclude to make it henceforward the business of thy life to learn this great lesson of loving God; and as no one but God Himself can effectually teach thee so sublime and so divine a science, continually beg of Him to introduce thee into His school, which He holds in thy interior, and there to be thy master.

On Loving the Lord Our God Above All Things

Consider first, the import of these words, ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God,’ and thou shalt find in them innumerable motives to dedicate thyself to divine love. For who is this thou art here commanded to love? THE LORD, that is, the eternal, self-existent, incomprehensible, and infinite Being of beings, who alone properly is, and who is being itself. For all this is implied in that ineffable name, which is here rendered THE LORD. ‘I am, who am,’ saith He, Exod. iii. 14. And ‘He who is hath sent me to you’–THE LORD, that is, the creator, and absolute master of the whole universe, of all things visible and in visible; infinitely powerful, infinitely wise, infinitely good, infinitely beautiful: the one true sovereign good, infinite in all perfections, goodness, beauty, perfection, and truth itself, compared with whom all things else are just nothing at all. See, my soul, how many motives thou hast to love this great Lord, who comprises in Himself all that is lovely and charming, who is the immense ocean of all good.

Consider 2ndly, the motives of divine love implied in those words, thy God; forasmuch as they signify that this Lord of infinite majesty is also pleased to be thine. Yes, He is thy God, He is thy first beginning and thy last end, He is thy maker, who has made thee for Himself; and who many ways daily communicates Himself to thee; He is thy father, thy spouse, thy pastor, thy keeper, thy constant benefactor, thy ever faithful friend, thy ancient and most disinterested lover, thy sovereign good, and the source of all thy good, for time and eternity. And whereas thou wast fallen from Him and from His love by sin, He has been pleased to give himself to thee, in a manner still more enduring, by sending His own Son to be thy saviour and redeemer. O reflect, my soul, on what the Son of God has done and has suffered for the love of thee. From the first moment of His conception, thou wast always in his heart. His love for thee brought Him down from His heavenly throne, to take flesh and blood in the womb of the Virgin; His love for thee made Him offer up His flesh and blood upon the altar of the cross, a sacrifice for thy sins; His love for thee made Him bequeath this same flesh and blood in an admirable sacrament, to unite thee to Himself for eternity. And shall not all this oblige thee to love Him, and to love Him with thy whole heart?

Consider 3rdly, that this love which we owe to our God, both as infinitely good in Himself and as infinitely good to us, must be a love of preference, that is, we must love Him above all things whatsoever. For he that loves his worldly honour, his interest, his pleasure, his own will, the gratifying his humours and passions, or the pleasing of any person, how near or dear soever, more than his God, is not worthy of God; but is guilty of high treason against Him, and of a kind of idolatry, in preferring the creature before the creator, who is blessed for evermore. And not only he that prefers any creature before God, but he that even offers to put himself, his own life, his dearest affections, or any other thing created, or even the whole creation in balance with his God, so as to love them as much as God, is in like manner unworthy of God, and offers him the greatest outrage imaginable; because the whole universe compared with God is a mere nothing, and therefore cannot, without an intolerable injury, be put in balance with Him. Ah what must I then think of myself, when I have so often preferred empty toys, mere vanities, and lying follies before the living God.

Conclude henceforward, at least, to love the Lord thy God above all things, and nothing else with Him, but what thou lovest for His sake, and with relation to Him. Cry out with St. Michael, Quis ut Deus? Who is like to God? And who but He deserves our heart?

On Loving God With Our Whole Heart

Consider first, that the first sacrifice which divine love calls for by this great commandment is that of our heart. My son, ‘give me thy heart,’ says the wisdom of God, Prov. xxiii. 26. This sacrifice must be of the whole heart, and in the nature of a holocaust, that is, of a sacrifice in which the whole victim is given to God without reserve, being first slain and then laid upon the altar of God, and there consumed with fire; even with that fire which originally came from heaven, Levit. ix. 24, and which was commanded to be kept always burning upon God’s altar. Wherefore, in this mystical sacrifice of love, this heart of ours, in order to be made a holocaust, should also first be slain, that is, should first die to itself; and to all its disorderly affections, by mortification and self-denial, and so be laid on God’s altar, to be wholly dedicated and consecrated to Him; and to evaporate, as it were, to Him in the flames of divine love, which is the true fire that comes down from heaven to carry us up thither, and which ought always to be kept burning in the mystical temple of God in our souls.

Consider 2ndly, how just, how reasonable, how necessary it is that we should love our God with our whole heart, so as to give no part of it away from Him, since it belongs wholly to Him by all manner of titles. He made our heart for Himself; to be the eternal seat and the living temple of His love, and He has given it a certain longing after Him, together with an immense capacity of love, which nothing less than God can fill or satisfy. He has shed His own most precious blood to purchase our heart, to cleanse it for Himself; and to fill it with His love. It has been solemnly dedicated, sanctified, and consecrated to Him at our baptism. He has sent His divine Spirit to take possession of it, to make it His kingdom, and to establish His throne in it. It must then be a most crying injustice if we offer to alienate any part of our heart from Him who claims it all upon so many titles. O Christians! let us give Him what is His without reserve; let us divert no part of this small heart of ours away from the immense Lord of heaven and earth; it would be a sacrilege to attempt it.

Consider 3rdly, that the love of God will not admit a divided heart, He will not suffer a rival in His kingdom, a partner in His throne, or an idol in His temple. Our God is a jealous God, and therefore, if we follow any other lovers, we lose His love and drive Him away from us. Alas! my soul, who is this that thou would’st associate with God in thy heart? Is it thy worldly pride, thy carnal affections, thy sensual inclinations? Assure thyself this love cannot endure such company as this. Or is it some favourite creature, which thou art unwilling to dislodge from the place it has occupied in thy heart? Ah! the bed is too narrow, it will not hold two, thou must either part with the creature or the creator. He loves God too little who loves anything else with him, which he does not love in Him for His sake, and with subordination to the love of Him.

Conclude to love thy friend in God, and thy enemy for God’s sake, and all such things as thou mayest lawfully love, according to the measure and rule prescribed by divine love; and thus no love of the creature will take off any part of thy heart from the love of the creator–thus thou shalt love Him with thy whole heart.

Act of Love

O my God, I love Thee above all things, with my whole heart and soul, because Thou are all-good and worthy of all love. I love my neighbor as myself for the love of Thee. I forgive all who have injured me, and ask pardon of all whom I have injured.

Indulgence of 3 years. Raccolta 36.

The Martyrs of Bosnia

https://www.catholicfamilynews.org/blog/2018/2/22/february-1945-the-30-martyrs-massacred-by-the-communists-in-bosnia

The following is from Catholic Family News & is a must read, recounting the evil of the communist agenda, as shown in the torture of these great priests and brothers.

During the Turkish domination of Bosnia-Herzegovina, twelve Franciscan friars of Herzegovinian origin, came from Kresevo in Bosnia, deciding to construct a monastery in their land of origin, as a sign of faith, choosing to do so in Široki Brijeg.

Establishing themselves in this small village, and after having bought a large plot of land at a high price, they began to construct a church dedicated to Our Lady Assumed into Heaven. The work to build the monastery soon began, and then a building to use as a seminary.

Nearby they erected a scholastic center which included a gymnasium where the friars taught the young generations of Bosnia-Herzegovina. A house for borders from far away was also built. And so the place became a Christian cultural center, and the shrine transformed into a symbol for Herzegovina. Exactly 100 years later, the monastery was devastated and destroyed.

It happened in this way: on February 7, 1945, the Communist party members decided to destroy from the Christian symbol from its foundations, and to uproot the Catholic Faith, kindness and the recognition of the Franciscan friars from the hearts of the people.

They arrived at three in the afternoon, finding 30 religious in the monastery; many of them were professors in the gymnasium adjacent to the monastery.

The communists said: “God is dead, there isn’t a God, there’s not a Pope, there’s not a Church, there’s no need for you, go back to the world and work.”

They tried to persuade the friars, with threats and blasphemies, to take off the religious habit. They responded: “We are consecrated religious, we cannot take our habits off.”

Then, an angry soldier took the Crucifix and threw it out on the ground. “There,” he said, “now you can choose either life or death.”

Each of them knelt, embracing and kissing Jesus, holding the Cross to their breast, all of them saying like Saint Francis: “My God and my All.”

As mentioned, some of the Fathers were very famous professors, they had written many school books and manuals.

But they didn’t embrace their books and say: “You are everything for me.” No! They embraced Jesus, the Master! Full of hate and malice, the persecutors then took the friars one by one, taking them out of the convent, and killing them; they then doused the bodies with gasoline and burned them.

The Friars went to their death praying and singing the Litany of Our Lady.

These things have been to testified to, by the soldiers who had been part of the execution squad.

One of the soldiers was shocked by the heroic behavior of the Friars. He recounted: “Ever since I was a little boy at home, I always heard from my mother that there is a God, that God exists. Lenin, Stalin, Tito had always affirmed the contrary and did everything to instill in us that there is no God, that He doesn’t exist!

When life’s circumstances brought me to the martyrdom of Široki Brijeg and I saw how the Friars faced death, praying and blessing their persecutors, begging God to pardon the sins of the executioners, then my mother’s words rang clear, and I thought: my mom was right, there is a God, God does exist!”

Today, that soldier converted, and has a priest-son and a daughter who is a religious.

In their fury, they ravaged and wiped out the writing on the stone placed above the main entrance of the friary, on which was written the Name of God and the dedication to the Assumption of Our Lady.

Today the dedication is no longer legible, but the blood of the Martyrs has written it even more deeply in the hearts of the people, and brilliantly shines in the eyes of the Lord.

A dedication can be erased, it can be burned, destroyed, ruined, but the Faith cannot be taken from the heart of the Church.

To this day, Our Lady is lived, honored and celebrated with great love, at the Shrine.

The shrine is the largest in all of Bosnia-Herzegovina: it is a symbol, a sign. The communists had thought that by destroying the “sign,” the Faith would be finished too. Instead, the Faith has grown and developed under the mantle and protection of Our Lady.

Our Franciscan Martyrs had also grown and lived enveloped by Our Lady’s mantle. The bodies of the 30 witnesses of the Faith were left hidden in the earth for years and years; one could not name them or commemorate them in any way.

But the blood of the Martyrs cried out and was an example for everyone, and so new vocations flowered in hearts, the Church and Faith grew like a thriving tree.

At the time, I was four years old, and I remember how often my parents told us of what had happened to the Friars. And this was also the case in many families of my peers. The desire to imitate our Martyrs and ourselves become friars grew more and more.

Our Martyrs are witnesses to the Faith, witnesses to the love of God and neighbor. The 30 Franciscans didn’t become martyrs by chance, or by accident; they offered their lives and testified to the Faith consciously and with great joy.

This is very important. As the Church has always done and taught, so did they forgive their enemies, pray for their persecutors and bless their killers.

In the same way as Maximilian Kolbe and many others! Among the various Martyrs, the only difference is that of the means and method of martyrdom, but all have always manifested a great ardor and love: the love which burns hate, which burns and destroys violence, and everything changes and transforms into joy, a celebration, in the victory of Our Lord’s grace.

The Church takes life from the blood of her martyr-sons. These will always remain a great (source of) strength of the Church.

We who live in this place, and you who come here as pilgrims, we can reflect a little on the worth of our Faith and examine how much our Faith is important to us; how I am ready to give my life for my God, what I can do for my Jesus, what my Christ and His Cross and my Christian vocation mean to me.

A week after the massacre at Široki Brijeg, the communists went to Mostar and found seven friars in the monastery.

Although they knew what had happened in Široki Brijeg, they had decided not to escape, but to remain in the friary.

One of them was Father Leon-Grgo Petrovic, doctor of Theology, born in Klobuk in 1883. He, as Franciscan provincial, had the grace to consecrate all of his friars, who he felt were in danger at the beginning of the war, to Our Lady.

Now we can see how that consecration flourished. The devotion to Our Lady, that beautiful flower offered to the Blessed Virgin, bloomed on the day of the massacre, February 7, 1945.

As God the Father sent His Son to die, for the salvation of the whole world, and Jesus remained obedient, accepting the sacrifice of Himself, so our Martyrs offered their own lives and blood for the salvation of men, for peace, for our conversion.

They were immolated for the peace and good of the whole Church. I now want to present to you our Friars who became mature through martyrdom – some were only 20 years old – and who were capable of giving witness for Christ, and to demonstrate Who Christ was for them, for us.

With love and veneration, I give you their names…

The Martyrs of Široki Brijeg

Friar Bruno Adamcik, with degrees in philosophy and music from Bratislava, was 37 years old when he went to the glory of Heaven.

Friar Marko Barbaric, 80. Devoted to Our Lady, he had a reputation for sanctity among the students and seminarians, who witnessed that while walking in the park, he often spoke with the birds. These, as soon as they saw him, hastened to greet him and perched themselves on the hand he extended to them. He had lost his memory and was unaware of the war. On that February 7, 1945 he was in his cell, sick with typhus. The Communist officials ordered that he also be brought out, and so he was carried outside on a blanket. Then he was killed and thrown in the fire.

Friar Jozo Bencun, 76. He had been pastor in Humac and Široki Brijeg.

Friar Marko Dragicevic, 43. With degrees in history, Greek and Latin, he could not think of any of his students failing, so he found ways to bring out their positive sides.

Friar Miljenko Ivankovic, 21. He was very devout and humble. Today his brother and nephew are Franciscans.

Friar Andrija Jelcic, 41. He had been Father Guardian of Široki Brijeg. He built the church in Capljina. The people remember him as being a good shepherd and a true father.

Friar Rudo Juric, 21. A cleric in simple vows.

Friar Fabijan Kordic, 55. Very pious and good, he made habits for the brothers, and prepared himself to receive the habit which never wears out: that of martyrdom.

Friar Viktor Kosir, 21. When all the youngest seminarians, although not wishing to leave the monastery were commanded by the Rector to return to their own villages, knowing well that the Communists were coming to kill them, Friar Viktor resisted more than the others, but obediently returned home. There, he stayed only a few hours, despite his parents’ pleas, who heard the rumble of the airplanes who were bombing. He died with the others, as he desired. His mother had another son, and gave him the same name. However she often cried, looking at the picture of her dead son. The little one calmed her, telling her that he would take his brother’s place. Today, in fact, he is a Franciscan priest who exercises his ministry especially in the confessional.

Friar Tadija Kozul, 36. Professor of philosophy, Greek and Latin, a teacher of the clerics who loved him very much and preferred to die together, rather than leave him.

Friar Krsto Kraljevic, 50. He had been a great example to the people, in how he carried his cross of sickness, in this way preparing his soul for martyrdom.

Friar Stanko Kraljevic, 74. Preacher, professor, formator of clerics in Široki Brijeg.

Friar Zarko Leventic, 26. He confessed the sick, and bringing them the Eucharist, fell ill with typhus. He was also taken out of bed and killed. Chaplain in Široki Brijeg.

Friar Bonifacije Majic, 62. Professor and catechist, he got up during the night to fix the boys’ sheets. He was very loved by the people as a friar, professor and pedagogist.

Friar Stjepan Majic, 20, he had finished the novitiate and pronounced temporary vows shortly before.

Friar Arkandeo Nuic, 49. Graduated from the Sorbonne (University of Paris) he taught Latin, Greek, German and French. He was called the “little sheep of God” for his meekness.

Friar Borislav Pandzic, 35. Professor of Religion, he was a friar of true and simple Franciscan life.

Friar Kresimir Pandzic, 53. He had several degrees and had been provincial for three years. Professor of classical languages and director of the school, very active, he demanded the best of his students. He had great duties, but always remained humble.

Friar Fabijan Paponja, 48. Responsible for the boarding school, he was very tenderhearted toward his students, to whom he always gave little gifts.

Friar Nenad Venancije Pehar, 35. Professor of philosophy. Loved by his students because he did not differentiate between them.

Friar Melhior Prlic, 53. A laybrother and carpenter. He was respectful of the Rule, never absent from community prayer, much loved by the other brothers.

Friar Ludovik Rados, 20. He had just finished the novitiate and made temporary vows.

Friar Leonard Rupcic, 38. Professor of French, he gave such an example of humility and goodness that his students were more embarrassed when they hadn’t studied, than with any other professor.

Friar Mariofil Sivric, 32. Chaplain and teacher, as well as vicar of the friary. He was a classic example of a humble brother faithful to his Franciscan vows.

Friar Ivo Sliskovic, 68. After having worked in various parishes, he came to Široki Brijeg to spend the last years of his life.

Friar Kornelije Susac, 20. In temporary vows.

Friar Dobroslav Simovic, 38. Having become a doctor of Theology in Paris, he was then a seminary professor, he wrote a dissertation in French on the Our Father.

Friar Radoslav Vuksic, 51. He studied in Vienna, and was then a professor of mathematics and physics, besides being director of the gymnasium for six years. Ex-Yugoslavia had decreed that teachers also be examined by the government of Belgrade. When Friar Radoslav appeared before his examiners, they were stupefied by the Friar’s wisdom and culture. One of his students, today a famous philosopher in America, wrote that he was the most intelligent man and professor he had ever encountered.

Friar Roland Zlopasa, 33. A philosophy professor who taught more by his life, than with words. Known for his profound meditations.

Friar Leopold Augustin Zubac, 55. An excellent priest and professor, assistant at the hydro central which produced electric energy, constructed by the Friars for their needs, and those of the surrounding area.