You love, without passion; are jealous, without anxiety; repent, yet do not grieve; are angry, yet serene;
change Your works, Your purpose unchanged; receive again what You find, yet never lost; never in need, yet rejoicing in gains; never covetous, yet exacting interest.
You receive more than is owed, that You may become the debtor; and who has anything that is not Yours?
You pay debts, owing nothing; forgive debts, losing nothing.
Every line a paradox that should not hold — and yet does, because God holds it. Love without passion — not cold, but free. Love that gives without being driven. God's love needs nothing. It gives everything.
Change Your works, Your purpose unchanged. The works are changing — Portugal to Brittany. But the purpose — His purpose — unchanged. The boxes change. The plan does not.
You receive more than is owed, that You may become the debtor. The 500 denari reversed. God forgave the debt. Then receives Le's love and calls Himself the debtor. The arithmetic of grace makes no earthly sense.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails.
Your love will fail, change. But God's love never fails and keeps us alive.
Augustine describes what God's love IS — paradox holding together what human love cannot. Paul describes what human love IS NOT — and what divine love alone can be.
Le's note: your love will fail, change. But God's love never fails and keeps us alive. Human love has limits. It grows weary. It changes shape. Only God's love never fails. And that unfailing love keeps the pilgrim alive — morning after morning, country after country.
Augustine loves without passion. Paul's love is patient and kind. Kempis said My God, my all. Three voices. One love. The love that holds the paradox together.
When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.
For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face.
Now we see in a mirror, dimly; then face to face. The metaphor of the entire journal. The pastoral notes are reflections. Kempis was a reflection. Augustine is a reflection. Everything in this life is the mirror. The face to face comes later. But the mirror is not nothing. It is how we see Him now. Dimly. Partially. But truly.
The growth is real. Forty-three days of Kempis grew Le from one understanding to another. Now Augustine grows her further. The mirror — the morning mirror — is the grace for the in-between.
One day — not in the mirror, not dimly — face to face. Known as we are known. But until that day — the mirror is grace. And the mornings continue.
"Your love will fail, change. But God's love never fails — and keeps us alive."
Le's Heart · Caldas da Rainha · Augustine and Paul · Now a mirror — then face to faceThe God of Paradox
Love without passion. Angry yet serene. Change Your works, Your purpose unchanged. He forgives the debt, then calls Himself the debtor.
Love Never Fails
Human love fails, changes, grows weary. God's love never fails. The love that keeps the pilgrim alive morning after morning.
The Mirror
Now we see dimly. The entries, the notes — all reflections. Not nothing. Truly seeing, but partially. The mirror is grace for the in-between.
Then Face to Face
The promise beyond the mirror. Known as we are known. Until that day — the mornings continue. The love never fails.