God's Love

Reference: Porta Fidei Vatican document

The human emotion of being ‘in love’ is a great place to start when describing the love that God has for us. We can describe those feelings of wondrous joy, excitement, and the yearning and euphoria that come from being ‘in love’ with one of our fellow human beings. And yet this human love is but a drop in the ocean when compared to the love that God has for us. 

To experience the love of God is to experience being nurtured, empowered and full of joy beyond all rational understanding. God’s love extends beyond our emotions into a peace and stillness that surpasses all understanding (Phil 4:7). At the Porta Fidei retreat we hear first hand from our colleagues examples of how this love has been experienced in their lives.

For some Christians feeling the love of God is difficult. They may think of God as cold, aloof, harsh and demanding; an all powerful judge ready to punish us for our errors and misdeeds. These thoughts and images may have deep roots and are sometimes difficult to overcome. We find encouragement by praying for ourselves what Paul wrote to the Thessalonians,

We don’t need to ask for God’s love - it is unconditional, so we can regularly seek God’s reassurance, guidance and strength as a reminder of this gift. For God is love.