S U N D A Y
Love Our Hearts: Week 15 of Ordinary Time
We’re more than one-third of the way through Ordinary Time! For these seven weeks, following Bobby Gross’ excellent outline for Ordinary Time, we’ll consider a cycle of God’s love that alternates between permission to love ourselves and the imperative to love our neighbor. This week we are contemplating what it means to love our hearts as we love ourselves.
Sunday’s scripture
Ezekiel 33:1–11; Psalm 119:33–48; Romans 12:9–21; Matthew 18:15–20
If you practice scripture memorization or lectio divina, today’s passages are full of treasures. Savor the words, listen for the Spirit’s comfort and counsel, and ask God to give you the grace to grow in your capacity for love.
Love is the heart and soul of all that God commands and all that Jesus invites. Today, we’re talking about tending to our hearts as the part of us that directs every part of our lives as whole, flourishing human beings.
We’re also talking about beauty today. Beauty and love walk hand-in-hand, and in the post below, I’ve recorded myself reading the introduction to a chapter in my book entitled “Spacious Hearts.” In a later part of the book, not included below, I describe the role of beauty in regulating our hearts.
Beauty invites in us equal parts longing and contentment— neither pair well with pressing the pause button our emotions.
—Tamara Hill Murphy, The Spacious Path
I couldn’t choose just one song from The Porter’s Gate this week, so you get two! They both remind me of the best kinds of scripture songs I learned as a child. And both serve as a sweet soundtrack to today’s art from one of my all-time favorite creators.
Known as a “gentle revolutionary of the heart,” Corita Kent, an American nun and pop artist, led a life of creativity and love that took her in unexpected directions. Corita inspired her students to look at both the beauty and the ugly in the world around us through the eyes of love. Today’s image is one I’d like to reproduce in murals all over my neighborhood and the world. It is a paraphrase of Jesus's greatest commandment: love God and love your neighbor as yourself.
