An act of love to our good and merciful Savior ought to be a radical fiat, a self sacrificing act. We ought to love Christ fully and completely, without reserve. We must give Him our very lives in total surrender, handing over all our weaknesses and our unholy attachments. When we give Him consent, Jesus can transform us into His own image and through sanctifying grace we will become a temple suitable for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. We look to St. Peter the Apostle, and through his life, to see how we can overcome our weaknesses and surrender all to the will of God and in service to others.
Many hear Christ’s message and cannot accept it. They just walk away, unwilling to give Him their lives.
An Act of Love toward God is the Greatest Commandment
When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them [a scholar of the law] tested him by asking, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment.
The Act of Love to My Good and Merciful Savior prayer reflects on our own lack of love for God, recognizing like St. Peter did, that we are incapable of being able to love God without He first giving us the grace to do it. Not only will He give us the ability to love if we ask Him, but He will increase it in us the more we ask. We just need to humbly ask Him for this grace.
Let us ask for the grace to love Him more, and contemplate all the ways that we and others have not loved Him has he deserves.
Act of Love to My
Good and Merciful Savior
O good and merciful Savior,
It is the desire of my heart to return Your love for love. My greatest sorrow is that You are not loved by all men, and, in particular, that my heart is so cold, so selfish, so ungrateful. Deeply sensible of my own weakness and poverty, I trust that Your own grace will enable me to offer You an act of pure love.
And I wish to offer You this act of love in reparation for the coldness and neglect that are shown to You in the sacrament of Your love by Your creatures.
O Jesus, my sovereign good, I love You, not for the sake of the reward which You have promised to those who love You, but purely for Yourself.
I love You above all things that can be loved, above all pleasures, and also above myself and all that is not You, protesting in the presence of heaven and earth that I will live and die purely and simply in Your holy love, and that by loving You I must endure persecution and suffering, I am perfectly satisfied, and I will ever say with St. Paul: “Nothing shall separate me from the love of Christ.”
O Jesus, Supreme Master of all hearts, I love You, I adore You, I praise You, I thank You, because I am now all Your own.
Rule over me, and transform my soul into the likeness of Yourself, so that it may bless and glorify You forever in the abode of the saints.
Amen.
Peter's Love for Christ would Grow
After Peter denied knowing Jesus three times and hid away in fear during Christ’s passion, he felt a deep shame and lack of love for the Lord. Knowing this, and knowing how deeply Peter would come to love Him, Jesus attempted to heal this wound and reconcile with Peter at the end of the book of John.
In the Greek text of John 21, the Gospel of John uses two words to describe “love.” In English there is only one word. Each has its own particular meaning even though they must be translated with the one English word, “love.” This passage uses two of the three Greek words for love: “agape” and “philia.” When Jesus first asks Peter, both times he uses the word ‘agape’, and both times Peter, realizing his love is lacking, answers Jesus back with the word ‘philia’. The third time Jesus asks Peter he uses the word ‘philia’.
What does this mean?
Twice Jesus asks Peter if he has a self-sacrificial love for Him, and Peter responds that he has brotherly love for the Lord. And this distresses him. The third time Jesus asks Peter if he has brotherly love for Jesus and Peter responds that Jesus knows this is the limit of his love for Him. But look at what Jesus tells him in the end.
You may not yet feel your love for God is enough, and you may feel you lack what is needed to serve Him and do His will. Remember how He tenderly cared for Peter and have faith that He will give you the grace you need to grow your love for Him. If you pray for agape love, God in His mercy will grant it to you.
Pray the Prayer to St. Peter the Apostle for his intercession.