The fundamental element upon which a person can grow;
emotionally, psychologically, intellectually, spiritually, to
develop into an autonomous and balanced person is love.
This love transmits knowledge and understanding of safety,
unity, loyalty.
This is crucial in the formation of a child in order to become
a stable adult, and so that as an adult later on the relationships
formed with the opposite sex can have a solid base.
In adult serious relationship it is the exclusivity of other
close relationships with the opposite sex which underpins their
intimate union, but also substance or alcohol abuse is a serious
obstacle to the presence of unity in a couple and for growth,
it takes the role of the 3rd person in a supposed- to- be 2 persons
union.
The fall-out in families is horrendous; the seed of betrayal is
planted in the children's spirits, the drama and violence; whether
in words or actions, which they are witness to and caught up
in, is what forms them, instead of secure love and sound boundaries.
These burdens are literally passed on from generation to generation,
pain and mental health issues, and painful situations that are not
unavoidable but created and recreated, always with the same
disastrous results.
We go after money, possessions, experiences, power, but none of it
fulfills us for long.
What we crave is true and unconditional love.
The Powerful Infinite Love that made the world, everything in it
and every single one of us, is Alive. This love is free, and we
receive it into our hearts when we, first and foremost, live it out in
our close relationships, and secondly from there we extend it out to
our community and the larger world.
This is the natural order and also Church teaching.
Also worth remembering; if we can not be faithful in small things,
we will neither be able to be faithful (and therefore trustworthy) in
larger things.
Why Saint Therese of Lisieux always insisted on the importance
of doing the small everyday things really well; it is a spiritual exercise
that reforms the mind and heart, it purifies and elevates our spirits, we
will become unable to do anything without first considering the effect on
those we purport to love.
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