Salesian Literature

Salesian Views on

::   Laity  ::   Little Virtues  ::   Love  ::   Love of God  ::   Love of Neighbour

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Love

 

Love determines the activity of emotions and passions; It even controls the will, in spite of being determined by it

Treatise on the Love of God, 1:4. Love, as I shall explain presently, is the first feeling of satisfaction at the awareness of good; so, obviously it comes before desire – in fact, we only desire things when we love them.  It comes before pleasure; for would we find pleasure or joy in anything if we did not love it?  It comes before hope, because hope reaches out only to a future good that we love.  It comes before hatred, for we only hate evil because we love good; evil is only evil, because it is opposed to good.  It is the same with the other passions or emotions; they come form love – their root, the source of all their activity.

​

Description of love

Treatise on the Love of God, 1:7. So powerfully does goodness attract, the will immediately seeks satisfaction in that direction, once it becomes aware of something good, of something most agreeable to it.

​

The attraction that awakens love

Treatise on the Love of God, 1:8. The attraction which gives rise to love is not always due to likeness, but o the complementary relationship existing between lover and beloved.  No likeness awakens a sick man’s response to his doctor; it is the relationship between one man’s need and another man’s skill – one is in need of help which the other can give.

​

Love seeks union

Treatise on the Love of God, 1:9. To indicate perfection of love, the Holy Spirit nearly always uses words expressing unity or connection.  … Such unity of heart, soul and mind symbolizes the perfection of love – the union of many souls.

 

The union love craves is spiritual

Treatise on the Love of God, 1:10. Love seeks union, but union of the spirit.  It was by a kiss, Theotimus – remember? – that the bride expressed her desire for union with the bridegroom in the Song of Songs; a kiss, the symbol of oneness of spirit created by mutual outpouring of soul into soul.

​

Two different forms of love

Treatise on the Love of God, 1:13. Love is divided into two kinds: selfish and unselfish.  Selfish love is loving something for what we can get out of it: unselfish love is loving something for its own sake – in the case of another person, what can this mean but trying to ensure his contentment.

​

Love as synonym of charity

Treatise on the Love of God, 1:14. St. Augustine clearly demonstrates that the term “love” has no less sacred a connotation than the word “affection”.  Each of them, he says, can mean sometimes a pious emotion, sometimes a depraved passion; and he quotes various texts in support of this view.

​

Back to Top

​