Love That Does Not Measure

My daughter attached a quotation from Mother Teresa to the top of my computer screen. It was one of those wonderful gestures twelve year old daughters will do from time to time.

The quote reads, "Intense love does not measure, it just gives."

I would like to think that Annie was telling me she recognizes the love I do give her, rather than hinting I ought to be more unsparing!

Of course we are all called to love with intensity, to love our God, the Father, the Son Jesus Christ, and the ever-present counsellor, the Holy Spirit.

We express that love when we love as parents, as mothers and fathers.

The mothers who, this past Sunday, gave up their morning for church and singing and the opportunity to sit in the choir with their beloved children, are a special group who know how to love without measure.

I am always awe-struck by their presence and by their love. And their music was gorgeous.

We love in individual instances it seems, those occasions when we are called to do something more than our friends might be doing, something for the sake of our children. We love with gestures and actions that seem insignificant compared to the daily labor of Mother Teresa, for example, yet at the end of our days, those individual instances will add up to a lifetime of love if we allow ourselves that calling.

There is such beauty in the photo above, those mothers and sons and daughters, because of where they all are and why they are there.

As we sang together at Mass in one of the anthems, so might we pray each day:

Laudamus te, benedicimus te, adoramus te.

On Sunday it was a special mother and child Mother's Day Mass, tomorrow it might be a packed lunch for school and a load of laundry, a change of kitty litter and a screen repair.

"Oh Lord, help us not to measure but to keep on giving."

Laudamus te, benedicimus te, adoramus te.