image by Horia Varlan via Flickr, CC by 2.0
I learned that love was our Lord’s meaning.
And I saw for certain, both here and elsewhere,
that before ever he made us, God loved us;
and that his love has never slackened,
nor ever shall.
In this love all his works have been done,
and in this love he has made everything serve us;
and in this love our life is everlasting.
Our beginning was when we were made,
but the love in which he made us
never had beginning.
In it we have our beginning.
All this we shall see in God for ever.
May Jesus grant this.
Julian of Norwich, 1342-1416, English anchoress and mystic
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And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,
may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people,
to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,
and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—
that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
prayer & verse 