So should I love

Deeply,

With all my heart and soul?

Loving demands.

So should I love

Selflessly,

With all I have and am?

Loving can be painful.

So how can I love

Deeply and selflessly?

How can I love well

Courageously

Without feeling undervalued

Or taken advantage of?

How can I love

Like Jesus –

With no expectations

And no strings attached?

How can I love

Like the great Lover

Freely,

No questions asked?

Loving well is a gift

To the other.

I can love

With all my heart,

And all I have

Only when

I have received

Deep love from the Lover,

Only when

I have loved

Myself well.

Loving well,

Detached from the longing to be loved,

Sets me free to love

Deeply,

Selflessly,

Courageously,

and

With all of my heart.

Jesus loved well. He could do that because, ‘…Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people.’ John 2:24 St. Ignatius of Loyola calls this detachment. He writes, ‘ Our disordered attachment to outcomes gets in the way of loving God, others and ourselves. … Choosing detachment means loving what is.’

Photo by zhang kaiyv: https://www.pexels.com/photo/waterfalls-between-flowering-trees-7224484/

The post Loving Well first appeared on Stirrings in my soul.