Our Lady of Charity, Pray for Us

One of my favorite Scripture readings (OK, one of everyone's favorite Scripture readings) is 1 Corinthians 13, also known as "The Love Chapter".

1If I speak in the tongues 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, 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.

It's actually our family's "mission statement." When there are questions about what to do, how to act, we go to this chapter. Are we being patient? Kind? Are we keeping a record of wrongs done to us? Are we acting in a loving way?

And it's always interested me that in the King James version, love was translated as charity.

Now, I'm sure there's a really logical reason for this, and I bet I could google it and find out, but I'm not going to. Because it the midst of an absolutely horrendous week that had me despairing of not only my ability to love but also to be loved, a thought popped into my head-- all love is an act of charity.

None of us can earn it.

None of us deserve it.

And when we give it away, it's still not anything we've done of our own power, but as an act of grace.

And so, not by my own power but solely by grace, I'm making a choice to be loving, to be charitable. I'm choosing to be patient and peaceful, to trust, to hope, and not to be angry.

For "charity suffereth long, and is kind."

Mother of Charity! We place ourselves under your mantle of protection. Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus! To Him be the glory and the power now and forever. Amen.