“Welcome to Spiritual Journey Thursday. On the first Thursday of each month we gather to share our insights. This month our focus is on virtues,” from Karen Eastlund at Karen’s Got a Blog!
I’m thinking today about faith expressed in so many different ways, so many different religions. I feel thankful that love is the main virtue. I will keep believing this one fact — that God is love.
“But the fruit of the spirit is LOVE: joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23.
“And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.” I John 4:16
“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love; but the greatest of these is love.” I Corinthians 13:13
I used this verse from the love chapter for a golden shovel poem today.
It’s another day and
the muezzin is calling to prayer now
with his minor chord pensive plea, these
adhan come not one, two, or three–
but five times a day and the faithful remain
tuned to hear, exercising their faith,
praying regularly. Me, I don’t always hear, but I hope
in a big God to hear and
understand the hearts of all in Love,
and the wild and grateful prayers I utter. But
I am surely glad I don’t head up the
prayer collection–the greatest
challenge would be to make sense of
the childish, pious, sad, tender, and voiceless prayers–these
appeals go to the one who knows because God is
Love.
The greatest of these is love. Thank you, Denise, for your thoughts and poem. Blessings.
I love how your poem leads us to an inclusive, not exclusive image of God. “I don’t always hear, but I hope
in a God big enough to hear and
understand the hearts of all in Love,”
God is love. I am not sure how I would successfully navigate life without the love of God guiding me, Denise. I pray for the following quote to become a reality for the world: “The simple, humble, almighty, supreme virtue of love is the invincible fire of transformation for healing the world.” — Bryant McGill Thank you for sharing your thoughts from the other side of the world, Denise.
Beautiful golden shovel and image poem, Denise. I am thinking on love as divine, the main virtue of religion, the connective tissue that keeps humanity together…everything goes so wrong when we forget this and stray from it. If all could see with respect and honor such as this with which you write…how different our world would be!
This is beautiful! Like you, I’m so grateful that it’s not my job to sort all of the prayers out. I know God is big enough to handle all of that!