“I love my mother.” “I love my dog.” “I love ice cream.” The word “love” gets thrown around a lot, but what do we mean when we say we love different things? Luckily, the Greeks have different words for that.
Ah, love. The most highly-addictive, many-splendored battlefield there is. But what does it mean? In “Catholic Central: What Is Love?”, Kai and Libby explain the different kinds of love and how we can all keep ourselves from being selfish when it comes to love.
Diving Deeper
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How do you define the word “love”? What makes it easy to love some people? What makes it harder to love some others?
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Saint Teresa of Calcutta invites us to do small things with great love. How can we follow Christ’s example of love in our daily lives? Who are examples of people you can think of who love well?
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Is there one of the 4 loves identified that you are most drawn to? One that you find most difficult? How can you more actively integrate Agape love into the other forms of love in your life?
Activity
Little Things With Great Love: Think of one small act of love you can do each day for someone around you, whether for a coworker, a friend, a family member, a spouse, a child. Each day after you’ve completed your small act of great love for someone, reflect on and journal about how it felt, both for you and perhaps for the other person, if they observed what you did or expressed something to you. Notice where God might have been in that act, in you, and in the person you performed the act for. In prayer, talk to God like a friend about that act of love. Look for where God might be calling you to love next.
Reflection by Father Vince Kuna, C.S.C.
Tell someone you don’t normally tell, that you love them. That is all. Maybe this will give you a sense of God’s love for all, even those people you will never meet in this life.
