Walking the Camino - Thoughts on Love and Prayer

Prayer is communication with God.  In a loving relationship, there must be communication between lovers because love is not singular.  Love is for the other.  Love is not for the self.  Love is for the beloved that they might know that they are loved.

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful;  it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  Love never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.  So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”  1 Corinthians 13: 1-8, 13: 

Loving communication is the expression of our thoughts, words, deeds, and feelings to the beloved. The beloved hears and cherishes this communication.  The beloved has shown His Love for us. 

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” John 3: 16
God is love.  When we communicate with God, He lovingly draws each of us into His Sacred Heart and holds us dear.  God will not abandon us, and He cannot betray us because He is Love. His Love is unending.  His Love is real.  His Love centered on His Beloved Children. 

“Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.”  1 John 4: 7-8

Love is reciprocal.  Love only asks that:

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.  This is the great and first commandment.  And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets." Matthew 22: 37-40
God is Love.

“For God Who is Mighty has done great things for me, and Holy is His Name.” Luke 1: 49