Father in Heaven!

You have loved us first, help us never to forget that You are love,

  so that this sure conviction might triumph in our hearts

    over the seduction of the world,

    over the inquietude of the soul,

    over the anxiety for the future,

    over the fright of the past,

    over the distress of the moment.

But grant also that this conviction might discipline out soul

    so that our heart might remain faithful and sincere 

    in the love which we bear to all those whom

        You have commanded us to love

        as we love ourselves.

 

You have loved us first, O God, alas!

We speak of it in terms of history

    as if You have only loved us first but a single time,

    rather than that without ceasing You have loved us first in all things

    and every day and our whole life through.

When we wake up in the morning and turn our soul toward You –

    You are the first – You have loved us first;

If I rise at dawn and the same second turn my soul toward You in prayer,

    You are ahead of me, You have loved me first.

When I withdraw from the distractions of the day and turn my soul toward You,

    You are the first and thus forever.

And yet we always speak ungratefully 

    as if You have loved us first only once.

 

Soren Kierkegaard, 1813-1855, Danish philosopher and theologian

_______________________

 

 

God showed how much he loved us 

    by sending his one and only Son into the world 

    so that we might have eternal life through him. 

This is real love—not that we loved God, 

    but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.

Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. 

No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, 

    God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.