Love like Christ

BROTHERS and SISTERS: Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were sealed for the day of redemption. All bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling must be removed from you, along with all malice. And be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ. So be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us as a sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma. 

-Letter of Saint Paul to the Ephesians 4:30-5:2

I keep rereading this letter which was the second reading read at Mass this past weekend.
I underlined and highlighted in my magnificat (and above) what I need to work harder on.
I circled the words that stood out to me.

Walk in love, just like Christ.

How do I walk in love, just like Christ?

I remove all bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, reviling and malice. I replace them with being kind, compassionate, and forgiving.

But it's easier to be bitter, easier to get upset when things or people don't go my way.

It's difficult to forgive and look with compassion at those who've done harm to us.
It takes effort and practice to be kind.
And it takes the grace of God, an open & trusting heart to walk in love, just like Christ.

But when we walk in love we shall

Radiate joy. 

Joy overcomes the bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, reviling and malice. 
Joy is the heart of compassion, kindness and forgiveness. 
Joy is the vessel of love.

Be a vessel of love. 

"Someone who is a burning and shining lamp whose radiance gives light to my path and courage to my heart, making me want to live for others." Psalm 119:105 

When we live for others, not for ourselves, it's easy to be that vessel. It's natural to have that joy. 

Live for others. Live and love like Christ. No strings attached. 

John Henry Cardinal Newman Radiating Christ  

"Dear Jesus, help me to spread Your fragrance everywhere I go. 

Flood my soul with Your spirit and life. 

Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly that all my life may only be a radiance of Yours. 

Shine through me and be so in me that every soul I come in contact with may feel Your presence in 

my soul. 

Let them look up and see no longer me but only Jesus! 

Stay with me and then I shall begin to shine as You shine, 

so to shine as to be a light to others; 

the light, O Jesus, will be all from You; none of it will be mine: 

it will be You shining on others through me. 

Let me thus praise You in the way You love best: by shining on those around me. 

Let me preach You without preaching, 

not by words, but by my example, by the catching force, the sympathetic influence of what I do, the 

evident fullness of the love my heart bears to You."