On Love…

It is the work of a lifetime, coming to know and understand the beauty and truth of these two aspects of Love…

The Prophet
by Kahlil Gibran

Then said Almitra, "Speak to us of Love".
     And he raised his head and looked upon
the people, and there fell a stillness upon
them. And with a great voice he said:

     "When love beckons to you, follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep.
And when his wings enfold you yield to him,
Though the sword hidden among his
pinions may wound you.
And when he speaks to you, believe in him,
Though his voice may shatter your dreams
as the north wind lays waste the garden.

For even as love crowns you, 
So shall he crucify you. 
Even as he is for your growth,
So is he for your pruning.
Even as he ascends to your height 
and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,
     So shall he descend to your roots 
and shake them in their clinging to the earth.

Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself.
He threshes you to make you naked.
He sifts you to free you from your husks.
He grinds you to whiteness.
He kneads you until you are pliant;
And then he assigns you to his sacred fire,
that you may become sacred bread
for God’s sacred feast.
 
All these things shall love do unto you
That you may know the secrets of your heart and,
in that knowledge,
Become a fragment of Life’s heart.

But if, in your fear, you would seek only
Love’s peace and love’s pleasure,
Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness
And pass out of love’s threshing-floor,
Into the seasonless world
Where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter,
And weep, but not all of your tears.

     Love gives naught but itself
And takes naught but from itself.
Love possesses not
Nor would it be possessed;
For love is sufficient unto love.

When you love you should not say,
´God is in my heart,´ 
but rather, 
´I am in the heart of God´.

And think not you can direct the course of love,
For love, if it finds you worthy,
directs your course.
Love has no other desire but to fulfil itself.

But if you love, and must needs have desires,
Let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart
And give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love’s ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
 And then to sleep with a prayer for the
Beloved in your heart
And a song of praise
Upon your lips."

St Paul’s Letter to The Corinthians
(1:13)

"If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels,
but do not have love, 
I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
If 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 do not have love,
I am nothing.

If I give all I possess to the poor
and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,
but do not have love,
I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. 
It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
It does not dishonor others,
it is not self-seeking,
it is not easily angered,
it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love 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.
For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.

When 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 the ways of childhood behind me.

For now we see only a 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.

And now these three remain:
Faith, Hope and Love.
But the greatest of these 
is Love."