In the present

I found this definition by Chiara  of what it means to love! Back to basics! Such a simple thing can produce such great effects, namely the presence of a God amongst us!! I keep think if we all lived like this we would be in Paradise. But if only a small group of us lived like this then Paradise, the life of the Trinity would be amongst us!! Mind blowing. 

Loving someone does not mean sentimentality. To love someone is to do to others as we would have done to us This is the gospel. For example, if I had a pain I would like to be comforted, if I had a doubt I'd like to be reassured, if I were ignorant, I'd wish someone would instruct me, if I needed any clothes I'd wish someone would get me some, if I was sick I'd wish someone would visit me, if I were hungry, thirsty, I'd like someone to bring me some food. Even if you were in joy I wish someone shared it with me, because a joy shared is a joy multiplied. Loving someone means, therefore, do to others what you would want done to oneself, and at the same time to love someone is not to do to others what you would not want done to oneself. For example, I would not like to be hated, forgotten, abandoned, slandered, so I ought not to slander, or leave, I must not do to others what I do not want done to me. This is to love someone.

I will truly enter the life of God, who is love. Hence our spirituality has to be communitarian, because the life of God is "communitarian". All this I live in the present moment and again Chiara has a simple definition: 

If Scripture teaches us to do the small things well, this is precisely the characteristic of who does nothing else but what God asks of him in this present moment.

If one lives in the present, God lives in him and if God is in him, love is in him. Who lives in the present is patient and persevering, is meek, poor, pure, merciful, because s/he has love in its highest and genuine expression. S/he truly loves God with all his/her heart, soul, strength and is illuminated from within, is guided by the Holy Spirit. The person living the present does not judge, thinks no evil, love one's neighbour as oneself, has the strength of the evangelical madness of turning the other cheek, or to go the extra mile ...

It 's often the occasion to "give to Caesar what is Caesar's" because many times must fully live his life as a citizen ... and so on.

I mean, who lives in the present is in Christ, Truth.

Apologies for the rough translation. It is so beautiful, because it is so true. I only have the present and therefore can only be truly happy if I am in the present, because all that is good, positive for me I find in the present!! i realise that this is not easy, but it is possible!

Jesus make me stay in the present always. Make me love in the present always.