LOVE Lent 11

Scripture

I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Ephesians 3.16-19

Reflection

Is the wish of the author of Ephesians (usually ascribed to St Paul, but some doubt that claim) that we, as followers of Christ, be rooted and grounded in Doctrine? Dogma? Even Scripture? Are we supposed to be rooted and grounded in Church? Worship? Liturgy? Prayer? Obviously not - the prayer hopes that we will be rooted and grounded in love. 

It is a rooting in a love so deep, so high, and so broad, that the writer tells us that it surpasses knowledge. A rooting so mystical as to be beyond comprehension - as the love of God often is. 

It's a mystery that we enter into, by prayer, by meditating on Scripture, by worship, and liturgy, and sometimes through the contemplation of doctrine and dogma, through being a part of a spiritual community - but even more than that, we grow in love by doing loving things, by living out the immesurable love of God in the way we act towards others, and how we see ourselves. 

May we all be rooted and grounded in love. 

Prayer

Almighty God,
you have made us for yourself,
and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you:
pour your love into our hearts and draw us to yourself,
and so bring us at last to your heavenly city
where we shall see you face to face;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.Amen

Prayer after a quote by St Augustine for the 17th Sunday after Trinity in the Church of England - can be found here

Prayer