Here is where we have to agree to disagree. “Love” is God working though us in the highest manner. If you’re doing something out of Love, you don’t mind doing it, even if it’s something that you would otherwise find unenjoyable, when not done out of love. “Duty” is something you have to do, and although an individual may personally find any particular duty enjoyable, it isn’t always so.
I did not get pregnant thinking that my babies would sleep through the night or that the Magic Fairy was going to change their diapers for me. I wanted them and love them, and I knew that babies/children are hard work, but I took care of them because I love them. Yes, one can see having to feed or change a baby as an unenjoyable duty–after all, failure to do either of these for a prolonged period of time would constitute child abuse, which is illegal. My motivation for caring for them was because I love them, I wanted them to be happy and healthy–not fear of going to jail. Love vs. duty.
No, that’s love vs. fear of punishment. Punishment is a negative, duty is a positive. We have children and we love them, even if we aren’t always happy with them at the moment. Love is a not about a
feeling of love, like with a new boyfriend or whatever, it’s about
commitment, which is about the will. How do I know my man won’t wake up and not feel in love with me anymore and pick up some other girl? Because it’s not about feelings, it’s about commitment, which is in the will.
Again,. Love is God’s working through us, not something you force yourself to “learn.” Sure, I can force myself to get up at 3am and go jogging every morning, but that’s a far cry from saying “I LOVE jogging!” Will I ever get used to it? Probably, if I keep it up long enough. Will I "learn to love"it? Not bloodly likely.
We learn by doing, by repetition. That’s how we learn to love things. Many people
do enjoy jogging and do it recreationally, not necessarily because they are terrified they are going to die of a heart attack if they don’t. We must avoid evil because it is evil, not for fear of punishment. We must embrace good because it is good, not for desire of a reward. Eventually people learn to love what is good and hate what is bad.
Our Lady loved the Cross, was she elated when she was kneeling at the foot of the Cross watching Her Divine Son die upon the Cross? Of course not. But she
embraced it and
loved it just as she embraced the other sufferings in her life. The saints learn to love the crosses that God sends them because they are the means by which the soul is purified and raised to God. It is a means by which they can join with Christ on the Cross and this is perfected by the martyrs but all martyrs die to themselves long before they die physically.
If love was an emotion, how could it be compatible with suffering? How could one learn to love suffering? Advancement in the spiritual life is exchanging a lower good for a higher good. Being free from physical, emotional, and spiritual pain is a lower good but the higher, spiritual good, is to go through physical, emotional, and spiritual pain in order be purified and give greater glory to God. Supernatural love is therefore in the higher soul, in the intellect (where will is), not in the lower soul, in the emotions.
Charity is an infused virtue, which comes from God, not an emotion which we generate. See 1Cor 13.
We love the veil as a proximate good because it is a way of giving glory to God, Who is the absolute good. It gives God glory because it is a sign of humility, modesty, respect, obedience and embraces our femininity ~ celebrating the way God made us as distinct from men, who
remove their head coverings to pray.