How do you love God?

[Ontheway]

We are to love God with all our heart, soul and mind. But, how do you do that? How does one love God invisible? And, how do you manifest this love?

 

[midori]

You recognize Jesus in the people around you— and go from there.

 

[jcrichton]

We are to love God with all our heart, soul and mind. But, how do you do that? How does one love God invisible? And, how do you manifest this love?

Hi!

We have a window into this exact phenomenon:

16 We ourselves have known and put our faith in God’s love towards ourselves. God is love and anyone who lives in love lives in God, and God lives in him. 17 Love will come to its perfection in us when we can face the day of Judgement without fear; because even in this world we have become as he is. 18 In love there can be no fear, but fear is driven out by perfect love: because to fear is to expect punishment, and anyone who is afraid is still imperfect in love. 19 We are to love, then, because he loved us first. 20 Anyone who says, ‘I love God’, and hates his brother, is a liar, since a man who does not love the brother that he can see cannot love God, whom he has never seen. 21 So this is the commandment that he has given us, that anyone who loves God must also love his brother.

(1 St. John 4:16-21)
This is why Jesus, when asked about the greater Commandment, stated that the first is to Love God Above all and that the second was to Love neighbor as self–on this two the Law and Prophets are fulfilled!

Clearly, this Call to Love is not measured in human terms (ego, selfishness, reciprocity…); Jesus set the curb (St. Matthew 5, 6, 7):

13 A man can have no greater love than to lay down his life for his friends.

(St. John 15:13)
Maran atha!

Angel

 

[TheLeastofThese]

You recognize Jesus in the people around you— and go from there.

 

[Autumn_Smoke]

We are to love God with all our heart, soul and mind. But, how do you do that? How does one love God invisible? And, how do you manifest this love?

We ask God to help us to love Him more and more each day, for within our own selves, we fall very short of this. Then we ask Him to manifest this love to others through us. For “without him, we can do nothing.” (John 15:5) We remain in Him, for he is the vine who sustains the branches (also John 15:5). We remain in Him through prayer, Mass, and scripture.

 

[tawny]

You recognize Jesus in the people around you— and go from there.

Amen.

 

[Ontheway]

Hi!

We have a window into this exact phenomenon:

This is why Jesus, when asked about the greater Commandment, stated that the first is to Love God Above all and that the second was to Love neighbor as self–on this two the Law and Prophets are fulfilled!

Yes, the love of neighbor, child, spouse, parent, etc. are withing our ability to comprehend. But, we are asked to love God above all else. This is what my question is addressing. How can I love God first?

 

[Monica4316]

We are to love God with all our heart, soul and mind. But, how do you do that? How does one love God invisible? And, how do you manifest this love?

I think it’s by putting His Will above our own… we choose God first in everything, and do what is pleasing to Him. We show this love in our works.

 

[Ontheway]

I think it’s by putting His Will above our own… we choose God first in everything, and do what is pleasing to Him. We show this love in our works.

So, following the commandments is the way to go?

 

[Roseeurekacross]

We are to love God with all our heart, soul and mind. But, how do you do that? How does one love God invisible? And, how do you manifest this love?

Prayer, Mass, Sacrament of Reconcilliation, try to imitate Christ,

As my Priest says, allow the Holy Spirit to work through us, so give up our will for the Will of God.

Appreciate Rainbows. They are God’s Covenant after the Flood

…

 

[adf417]

So, following the commandments is the way to go?

all of them!

Peace!!!

 

[jcrichton]

Yes, the love of neighbor, child, spouse, parent, etc. are withing our ability to comprehend. But, we are asked to love God above all else. This is what my question is addressing. How can I love God first?

Hi!

…I think that the hard part is the “doing;” we can get the “know” part… we even claim it right off the top of our head/heart… but what does Loving God Above All else means?

Jesus explained it this way:

15 If you love me you will keep my commandments.

(St John 14:15)
Notice that Jesus does not state the “Ten Commandments;” He actually states My Commandments–these, by necessity, include the Law and the Prophet… but with the added Commands that Jesus introduces…

The cue lies in Love.

Can we Love your family members and our “friends?” Mostly, yes; but what about those who are not part of those two groups? What of those who, due to one reason or another, hold us as enemies or are actually not righteous people, can we Love those too, for the sake of our Relationship with God?

Here’s a window to how we can place God Above All:

23 So then, if you are bringing your offering to the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your offering there before the altar, go and be reconciled with your brother first, and then come back and present your offering.

(St. Matthew 5:23-24)
God is involved in every relationship; He wants us to use His Way as our gauge for dealing with ourselves and the world. Pride gets obliterated; ego gets obliterated; enmity gets obliterated! This means that we must put on Christ:

3 There must be no competition among you, no conceit; but everybody is to be self-effacing. Always consider the other person to be better than yourself, 4 So that nobody thinks of his own interests first but everybody thinks of other s people’s interests instead. 5 In your minds you must be the same as Christ Jesus: 6 His state was divine, yet he did not cling to his equality with God 7 but emptied himself to assume the condition of a slave, and became as men are; and being as all men are, 8 he was humbler yet, even to accepting death, death on a cross.

(Philippians 2:3-8)
Maran atha!

Angel

 

[Ontheway]

Hi!

…I think that the hard part is the “doing;” we can get the “know” part… we even claim it right off the top of our head/heart… but what does Loving God Above All else means?

Jesus explained it this way:

Notice that Jesus does not state the “Ten Commandments;” He actually states My Commandments–these, by necessity, include the Law and the Prophet… but with the added Commands that Jesus introduces…

The cue lies in Love.

Can we Love your family members and our “friends?” Mostly, yes; but what about those who are not part of those two groups? What of those who, due to one reason or another, hold us as enemies or are actually not righteous people, can we Love those too, for the sake of our Relationship with God?

Here’s a window to how we can place God Above All:

God is involved in every relationship; He wants us to use His Way as our gauge for dealing with ourselves and the world. Pride gets obliterated; ego gets obliterated; enmity gets obliterated! This means that we must put on Christ:

Maran atha!

Angel

Thank you for a very beautiful, thoughtful response. This is the correct answer to my question, and I only wish that I had the gift, the ability to act in this way. Perhaps there are people predisposed to this. Those of us without the gift must find the way to achieve this state. If “putting on Christ” does not come automatically, is there a way to attain this state?

 

[Reuben_J]

We are to love God with all our heart, soul and mind. But, how do you do that? How does one love God invisible? And, how do you manifest this love?

It would boil down basically to two categories - loving God and loving man.

The list may be long, examples like:

Loving God - having a personal relationship with God. Make an effort of building that relationship through prayers, the Sacraments, reading the Bible and live by it, openness and surrender to the leading of the Holy Spirit to holiness and righteousness and faithful to the Magisterium. Try to stay away from sins.

Loving man - living in a community of Christians, live as children of the light and serve them and work of mercy.

 

[Ontheway]

Found this in Veritatis Splendor:

Both the Old and the New Testaments explicitly affirm that without love of neighbour, made concrete in keeping the commandments, genuine love for God is not possible. (Veritatis Splendor – JPII)

To put it differently, following the commandments is the way to practice the love of neighbor. This is necessary to have genuine love for God.

 

[Robert_Sock]

I believe that loving God as we ought is greatly overlooked in Church teachings! I have yet to hear a single homily devoted to this most important commandment. I personally believe that Christians tend to downplay its importance.

Gay marriage receives much outrage, as it ought, but loving God as we ought receives relatively little attention given it’s the most important aspect of our Christian faith.

I believe we all fall way short in our fulfilling this most important commandment. We are taught that we are all sinners, and I think this is the number one reason why!

 

[jcrichton]

Thank you for a very beautiful, thoughtful response. This is the correct answer to my question, and I only wish that I had the gift, the ability to act in this way. Perhaps there are people predisposed to this. Those of us without the gift must find the way to achieve this state. If “putting on Christ” does not come automatically, is there a way to attain this state?

Hi!

…ever noticed how low key Jesus examples were… he always brought the point home… but with the lay back… ‘those who have eyes/ears’… God would love to have a whole bunch of alter Christus who live it the the iota; yet, God understand that man’s heart and mind are dense, stubborn, and even calloused; so He patiently awaits for our Conversion.

Our Spiritual journey is no different than any other… one step at a time; breaking down the big tasks into manageable ones.

As you expressed at the beginning of the thread, Loving those who are part of our inner circle it’s easy… so if we perfect Love from that position we can learn to Love beyond human egocentrism; it is a choice to Serve God through serving others.

The standard set by Christ is found in St. Matthew 5 thru 7. St. James puts it this way:

15 If one of the brothers or one of the sisters is in need of clothes and has not enough food to live on, 16 and one of you says to them, ‘I wish you well; keep yourself warm and eat plenty’, without giving them these bare necessities of life, then what good is that? 17 Faith is like that: if good works do not go with it, it is quite dead.

(St. James 2:15-17)

…and St. Paul qualifies it like this:

7 Don’t delude yourself into thinking God can be cheated: where a man sows, there he reaps: 8 if he sows in the field of self-indulgence he will get a harvest of corruption out of it; if he sows in the field of the Spirit he will get from it a harvest of eternal life. 9 We must never get tired of doing good because if we don’t give up the struggle we shall get our harvest at the proper time. 10 While we have the chance, we must do good to all, and especially to our brothers in the faith.

(Galatians 6:7-10)
So the basic breakdown is this: Love God Above All and your neighbor as yourself. This Call requires that the Believer commits his/herself to a Life in Christ: putting others first, Loving even those who persecute them, achieving perfection and success in sharing Christ’s Love with the world–one moment at a time.

…and as the saying goes, it takes three things to achieve perfection (Holiness): practice, practice, practice!:

1 So far then we have seen that, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by faith we are judged righteous and at peace with God, 2 since it is by faith and through Jesus that we have entered this state of grace in which we can boast about looking forward to God’s glory. 3 But that is not all we can boast about; we can boast about our sufferings. These sufferings bring patience, as we know, 4 and patience brings perseverance, and perseverance brings hope, 5 and this hope is not deceptive, because the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given us.

(Romans 5:1-5)
Maran atha

Angel

 

[jcrichton]

I believe that loving God as we ought is greatly overlooked in Church teachings! I have yet to hear a single homily devoted to this most important commandment. I personally believe that Christians tend to downplay its importance.

Gay marriage receives much outrage, as it ought, but loving God as we ought receives relatively little attention given it’s the most important aspect of our Christian faith.

I believe we all fall way short in our fulfilling this most important commandment. We are taught that we are all sinners, and I think this is the number one reason why!

Hi, Robert!

I think it is due to man’s ability to compartmentalize… Catholics go to Mass–done deal, ‘just showed God that I Love Him; now I have the rest of the week to live my life!’ (Have you noticed how “living my life” has encroached upon those measly few Mass minutes? People dress as inappropriately as possible, bring food, entertainment, and water to the Breaking of the Bread as though they are in a traveling circus or trekking through a desert.)

…and non-Catholics think that the path to Heaven professional level entertainment–the louder the better… and don’t forget the cappuccino!

Sacrifice (specially self-sacrifice) no longer qualifies the term: Love God Above All.

Maran atha!

Angel

 

[ANV]

I think the 2 commandments of loving god and loving the neighbor don’t work much politically.

 

[fhansen]

We are to love God with all our heart, soul and mind. But, how do you do that? How does one love God invisible? And, how do you manifest this love?

There’s only one way to love anything: to know it. And God can make Himself known, even if He remains distant much or most of the time during this life. The more we seek and cooperate with Him, the more He honors that with more grace, and a closer “glimpse” of Himself. But it’s a process. In the end it’s the process of justifying/sanctifying/perfecting, because love is the basic definition of justice for man, which is why the Greatest Commandments are what they are. Anyway, this goal, of coming to love God and neighbor, is the greatest pursuit for humankind-the most worthwhile and challenging adventure we can set out on.