Reflection

REFLECTION       As I looked to the year ahead in late December, I decided to try to be "a vessel of love" in 2013. To reinforce remembrance of that desire, I put a blue, glazed pottery chalice on my prayer altar. How pleased I was several weeks later when I came across a comment in Daniel Ladinsky's translation of poems by Hafiz, the Persian poet. Ladinsky describes Hafiz as being "awakened to love."  Then he adds, "One cannot master love, one can only serve as a vessel of love," noting that a "glass or cup is a vessel which can often represent the human heart, or even the human being, as a vessel of love." (A Year With Hafiz)   My desire to be this kind of vessel finds its inspiration in the two commandments that Jesus taught and lived: to love God with all our heart, mind and soul, and to love our neighbor as our self. (Mt22:37-40) Great spiritual teachers insist that this type of love is to permeate our life at every level. It is quite easy, as Jesus noted, to love those in one's immediate circle of relationships, but the people of the larger world?  What to do with those, near or far, who determine they are our enemy?   The qualities of love found in 1Cor13:1-8 ("Love is patient, kind, not jealous, pompous or rude...) flow easily off the tongue of those who read them, but daily living can quickly challenge the activation of those golden words.  Everyday life, however, remains the central arena in which love grows.  Like the tiny droplets of wine that together fill a chalice, so, too, with love. It is the little things done with kindness, selflessness, patience and respect that are the droplets filling the vessel of love.    February 14, Valentine's Day, offers an opportunity to commemorate the power and possibility of love to transform lives. This day reminds us of the long-lasting kind of love that sustains and encourages one another. One way we can celebrate Valentine's Day is to thank those who have been vessels of love for us.   Perhaps you may also want to join in my prayer to be a vessel of love:     All Encompassing Heart, Where there is impatience, let me bring kindness. Where there is strife, let me bring harmony. Where there is hurt, let me bring healing. Where there is rigidity, let me bring openness. Where there is judgment, let me bring understanding.   O Wide and Spacious Love, Turn me toward your unconditional acceptance. I seek to be a vessel of your great love. Let me carry this love into all parts of my life and pour it forth willingly and generously.         Deep peace,   Joyce Rupp