"EARTH - One House of Prayer we All Share." geoagape
"You will find as you look back upon your life that the moments when you have truly lived are the moments when you have done things in the spirit of Love." Henry Drummond
"You not only can't explain love...actually, you can't even talk about it." Charlie Brown in "Peanuts"
"The greater a person's soul, the deeper they love. " Leonardo Da Vinci
"Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend." Martin Luther King Jr.
"When you feel the suffering of every living thing in your own heart, that is consciousness." Buddha
"Nothing hurts a good soul and a kind heart more than to live among people who can't understand it." Ali Talib
"For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seed of murder and pain can not reap joy and love." Pythagoras
"Love one another as I have loved you." Yeshua The Anointed
"The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of humanity." Charles Darwin
"Until he extends the circle of compassion to all living things, humanity itself will not know peace." Schweitzer
"Does every creature have a soul? Surely they do; for anything God has touched will have life forever, and all creatures he has held." St. Francis of Assisi
"All creatures are doing their best to help God in his birth of himself." Meister Eckhart
"Love is all we have, the only way that we can help the other." Euripides
"Love begins with a smile, grows with a kiss, and ends with a teardrop." Anonymous
"All things are living, even stones. It has to be that way: energy pulsates from their bodies since all of part of the Omnipresent Living Being. Everything is holding out their hands, offering something." Hafiz
"Start seeing everything as God, but keep it a secret.... Hafiz, who can you tell in the world that when a dog [pig, cow, chicken, bear, deer, fish] runs up to you wagging its ecstatic tail, you lean over and whisper into its ear, 'Beloved, I am so glad you are happy to see me. Beloved, I am so glad, so very glad, you have come." Hafiz
'I have come into this world to see this: all creatures hold hands as we pass through this miraculous existence we share on the way to even a greater being of soul." Hafiz
"How humble is God? God is the tree in the forest that allows itself to die and will not defend itself in front of those with the ax, not wanting to cause them shame. And God is the Earth that will allow itself to be deformed by man's tools, but God cries; yes, God cries, but only in front of the closest ones. And a beautiful animal is being beaten to death, but nothing can make God break God's silence to the masses and say, 'Stop, please stop, why are you doing this to me?' How humble is God? Kabir wept when I knew." Kabir
"Admit something: Everyone you see, you say to them, 'Love me.' Of course you do not do this out loud, otherwise someone would call the cops. Still though, think about this, the great pull to connect. Why not become the one who lives with a full moon in each eye that is always saying, with that sweet moon language, what every other eye in this world is dying to hear?" Hafiz
"Spirituality is love and love never wars with the minute, the day, one's self and others. Love would rather die than maim a limb, a wing." St. Thomas Aquinas
"Creation is God's litter and all are nursed." St. Thomas Aquinas
"I said to God, 'Let me love you.' And he replied, 'Which part?' 'All of you, all of you,' I said. 'Dear you are as a mouse wanting to impregnate a tiger who is not even in heat. It is a feat way beyond your courage and strength. You would run from me if I removed my mask.' I said to God again, 'Beloved I need to love you -every aspect, every pore.'
And this time God said, 'There is a hideous blemish on my body, though it is such an infinitesimal part of my Being - could you kiss that if it were revealed?' 'I will try, Lord, I will try.' And then God said, 'That blemish is all the hatred and cruelty in this world." St. Thomas Aquinas
"We cannot really love anybody with whom we never laugh." Agnes Repplier
"Love is the perfect stillness, the greatest excitement, the most profound act, and the word almost as complete as God's name." Rabia
"It happens all the time in heaven, and someday it will begin to happen again on Earth - that men and women who are married, and men and men who are lovers, and women and women who give each other light, often will get down on their knees. and while tenderly holding their lover's hand, with tear-filled eyes, will sincerely say, 'My dear, how can I be more loving to you; my darling, how can I be more kind." Hafiz
"Anyone you have ever made love with, it is because you were really looking for God. I think the best I can do today along the lines of moral advice, in such a universe as we live in, is to say, try not to hurt any living thing, cause your odds will then, probably, increase for happiness." Hafiz
'Love is the difficult realization that something other than oneself is real." Iris Murdoch
"If you would be loved, love and be lovable." Benjamin Franklin
"Love is the willingness to extend oneself for the purpose of nurturing one's own or another's spiritual development." F. Scott Peck
"All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need." Acts 2:44
"And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make." The Beatles (the last lyric to their last song)
"By contrast, the fruits of The Spirit are Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control." Galatians 5:22
"Behold, my people, the spring has come; the Earth has received the embraces of the sun and we shall soon see the results of that love! Every seed is awakened and so has all animal life. It is through this mysterious power that we too have our being and we therefore yield to our neighbors, even our animal neighbors, the same right as ourselves, to inhabit this land." Chief Sitting Bull
"Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends." St. Paul
"The Spirit of Love is with me, for The Spirit has anointed me:
to share good news with all,
to bind up the brokenhearted,
to give release to the captives, to let the oppressed go free,
to help open the eyes of those who still do not see,
to offer the hearts of those without mercy a new way of life,
to help those wandering in the wilderness to know the Way of Love,
to live in The Spirit of Love's Way,
and to proclaim 'Be Love, Love All.'" geoagape
(based on Isaiah 61:1-2 Luke 4:16-19)
Explanation to the above statement. In my seminary one day one of my teachers asked me after a chapel service, "How's it going?" I responded, "OK Henry, but I'm having a problem with the Trinity. I agree with Nels Ferre who said in his great book, "The Universal Word" that he believed we all can have the same relationship with God as Jesus had." He replied, "Mystics always do." I didn't ask him if he meant mystics always think that or mystics always do have that relationship. Another teacher said with some exasperation in his voice, "Mummert, I don't know what to do with you. You either have the highest or the lowest Christology to ever go through here, but I can't figure out which it is." I replied, "It's the highest low Christology."
Jesus was not and never will be the war-like Messiah expected by some in The Old Testament. The word "messiah" literally means "anointed one." Jesus came on a humble donkey to love, not to kill. He was anointed by The Holy Spirit as Isaiah said to do the Anointed ministry he was given by The Spirit. But I believe we too can be little anointed ones. Just as he breathed The Holy Spirit on the gathered disciples, The Spirit of Love now breathes on us and in-spires (in spirit) us. My favorite line in the movie, "The Life of Brian" is when Brian's mother yells at the people saying Brian is the Messiah, "Now you listen here. He's not The Messiah. He's a very naughty boy." Jesus is The Anointed One. We are all naughty boys and girls. Yet we too may be anointed by The Spirit of Love. Paul says in II Corinthians 1:21 "it is God who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us by putting his seal on us and giving us the Spirit in our hearts." Another scripture I John 2:20 says, "But you have been anointed by The Holy One and all of you have knowledge." All who choose to follow The Way of Love, Love's Way, whatever their spiritual orientation, may also be anointed with The Spirit of Love and be little anointed ones and truly say what Isaiah and Jesus said, "The Spirit is with me for the Spirit has anointed me." Even if you are not a "Spiritual" person and choose not to speak with language which acknowledges The Spirit in your life, surely you can use the little "s" and say you live and act in the spirit of Love and choose to live Love's Way.