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Evangelical Love
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Description
An excerpt from the first Meditation:In his Theology of the Body, Saint John Paul II talks about our "original experiences." These are experiences on which the rest of our lives, and all of our other experiences, are founded. We can say that they are original for two reasons: they are the first experiences of our life, and the are also foundational for all the rest of our experiences within this world. John Paul II talks about three different experiences-original solitude, original nakedness, and original unity-which we will look at in later meditations. But for now I want to look at the single, unified experience in which these are inseparable.The whole of our life unfolds on the basis of a foundational or original experience that is common to all of us. This experience is that of being a little child held in the arms of our mother. It is the experience of being loved and held by another. We awaken to consciousness through a loving gaze, a free gift, that comes to us from the outside. In such a moment, when our mother looks upon us and smiles, we spontaneously smile back. But who has told the child to smile, who has taught her? No one-it is a deep intuition, in which she knows, without the need for words:"You...""Me...""And the love between us."There is a sense of being loved, of being accepted, sheltered, and cared for absolutely by another. The little child has the experience of being totally cradled in the arms of Love, which is manifest to her through the face, the eyes, the expression of her mother. Indeed, even before this the little child experiences this "shelter" in her mother's womb. Therefore we can say that, at the very first moment when we awaken to self-consciousness, to the awareness of our "I," we are aware of the "You" of another. Indeed, it is precisely through being known and loved by another that we come to the awareness of being a person. Through another's love, we experience what it means to be an individual who is always in relationship, who is loved and sustained by love at every moment.
Product details
Binding:
Paperback
Number of Pages:
128
Release Date:
2018-08-10
Publication Date:
2018-08-10
Publisher:
At the Wellspring Publishing
Languages:
Original:
English
ISBN13:
9798330571314
Weight:
147 g
Height:
127 cm
Width:
203 cm
Thickness:
7 cm
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