From the Bible:

1 Corinthians 13 (New International Version)

1 Corinthians 13
Love

1If I speak in the tongues[a] of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames,[b] but have not love, I gain nothing.
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.


Footnotes:
1 Corinthians 13:1 Or languages
1 Corinthians 13:3 Some early manuscripts body that I may boast

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From Swedenborg:

424. ...earthly love is love for ourselves and love for the world, and spiritual love is love for the Lord and love for our neighbor. Love for ourselves and for the world looks downward and outward, and love for the Lord looks upward and inward. So when an earthly love is separated from spiritual love, it cannot be raised away from our self-absorption. It remains immersed in it and even mired in it, to the extent that it loves it. If our discernment does rise up and see elements of wisdom in heaven's light, then our love drags it back down and unites it to itself in its self-absorption. There it either discards the elements of wisdom or distorts them or arranges them outside itself so that it can mouth them for the sake of reputation.

Just as an earthly love can rise up by levels and become spiritual and heavenly, it can also go down by levels and become sensory and physical. It goes down to the extent that it loves being in control with no love of service, simply for love of ourselves. This is the love that we call demonic.

Divine Love and Wisdom, NCE #424




 

MESSAGE


 

A VALENTINE TO GOD

Feb. 15, 2009
Wilma Wake


What did you do yesterday on Valentine’s Day? Did you give a valentine to someone you love? Did you give a Valentine to God?
What! You didn’t?? Don’t you love God above all else? When we think about those we love, we rarely include God on that list. We usually see our love for the Divine as completely different from our love for each other.

Yet many mystics from many traditions have written of their love for God with a fiery passion, and have expressed it in poetry. Much of the mystical poetry of the world is a kind of valentine to God expressing a passionate love.

In the Sufi tradition, God is the “Beloved,” for whom one has the deepest of feelings.

A modern Sufi leader writes this:
“Sufism is a mystical path of love in which God, or Truth, is experienced as the Beloved. The inner relationship of lover and Beloved is the core of the Sufi path. “

Here is a poem to the Beloved from the Sufi Rumi:

My God and My Love:
Eyes are at rest, the stars are setting.
Hushed are the movement of birds in their nests,
of monsters in the sea, and
You are the just who knows no change;
the Equity that does not swerve, the everlasting that never passes away.
The doors of kings are locked now and guarded by their henchmen, but your door is open to all who call upon You.
My Lord, each lover is now alone with his beloved.
And I am alone with Thee.


Another one of Rumi’s


Since I have heard of the world of Love,
I’ve spent my life, my heart
And my eyes this way.
I used to think that love
And beloved are different.
I know they are the same.


These Sufi poems put loving God in the same category as loving humans.

To Swedenborg, we could not fully experience earthly love without Divine Love being at its core.
“An earthly love separated from spiritual love is opposed to spiritual love. This is because earthly love is love for ourselves and love for the world, and spiritual love is love for the Lord and love for our neighbor. … So when an earthly love is separated from spiritual love, it cannot be raised away from self-absorption.”

To Swedenborg, God is love itself. God IS love.

Swedenborg is clear that our love of the Lord is the center of all loves and of our lives. Swedenborg helps us remember that the God’s Love is the center of our being, and reminds to live every moment expressing that love through our uses in life.

Poetry about love and longing for God is also found in the Christian tradition. Many of the Christian mystics saw themselves as brides of Christ, a tradition that was adopted in the monastic tradition for both men and women. One of the best know Christian writers is St. Teresa of Avila.

MY BELOVED ONE IS MINE
I gave myself to Love Divine,
And lo! My lot so changed is
That my Beloved One is mine
And I at last am surely His.

One of my favorite mystics of this era is Mechtild of Magdeburg. She wrote that she heard God say to her soul:

You are like a new bride,
whose only love has left her sleeping
I await you in the orchard of love
And pick for you the flower of sweet reunion
And make ready there your bed.

Her soul responds:

Ah my beloved, I am hoarse in the throat of my chastity
But the sweetness of your kindness
Has cleared my throat so that now I can sing.



Both Christian and Sufi love mysticism express abandonment as well as joy To love a human deeply is to feel loss when you are separated and grief if they should die. If one feels great joy when sensing God’s presence, then one also feels great loss when unable to feel it. Opening our hearts to the depth of Divine Love means also opening to deep grief during those periods when we can’t feel God’s presence.

Here is a poem from a Sufi missing the feeling of God’s love:

The source of my grief and loneliness is deep in my breast
This is a disease no doctor can sure.
Only union with the Friend can cure it.

St. Teresa wrote this:

Ah, my God without Thee,
Life goes sadly by,
And my yearning for Thee
Makes me long to die.


Here is another one by Rumi:

The Agony and Ecstasy of Divine Discontent:

I long to see your face.
In the taste of Sweetness
I long to kiss your lips.
In the shadows of passion
I long for your love.

Oh! Supreme Lover!
Let me leave aside my worries.
The flowers are blooming
with the exultation of your Spirit.

By Allah!
I long to escape the prison of my ego
and lose myself
in the mountains and the desert.

These sad and lonely people tire me.
I long to revel in the drunken frenzy of your love
and feel the strength of Rustam in my hands.

I’m sick of mortal kings.
I long to see your light.
With lamps in hand
the sheiks and mullahs roam
the dark alleys of these towns
not finding what they seek.

You are the Essence of the Essence,
The intoxication of Love.
I long to sing your praises
but stand mute
with the agony of wishing in my heart.




For Swedenborg, the joy of feeling one with God, or the agony of feeling separate, are not particularly important in daily life.

Just as an earthly love can rise up by levels and become spiritual and heavenly, it can also go down by levels and become sensory and physical. It goes down to the extent that it loves being in control with no love of service, simply for love of ourselves. This is the love that we call demonic.

We serve God moment by moment in our lives, even when we don’t feel God’s presence. A common earthly experience is two humans feeling deep romantic love for each other, and committing themselves to a life together. As the years pass, the feeling of romance is not present at every moment, yet they find a deeper love in the sharing of life’s daily experiences.

We all have our moments of feeling God’s love for us so intensely, that we are thrilled to serve God in our lives. Then, much of life is lived with uncertainty as to where God is. Then, we may feel the despair of the one who’s Lover is lost. Many days we feel neither love nor loss; just no sense of God – so we simply do our best to live the day as we think God wants.

I love this little Sufi poem:
I laugh when I hear that the fish in the sea is thirsty.

We are fish swimming in the sea of God’s Divine Love for us. The fish may feel thirsty and could forget that it need only open its mouths to be nourished! Like the fish, we live in a sea of Divine Love , yet sometimes forget to open our hearts to God’s Love that is all around us. We may not feel this every moment of every day. But that’s what Valentine’s Day is for – to remind ourselves both of our love for each other, and the intense love of God that flows into us at every moment; whether or not we are aware of it. Maybe you didn’t send God a Valentine; but you can spend some quality time together now.

You can meet now in the garden.


 

CLOSING SONG
"He Walks with me
Anne Murray