There were over 40 women present from around the Diocese for the retreat. We started with Eucharist in the Choir. Pastor Pat Green officiated and preached. She said we are Loved by God and live out this love by loving one another and ourselves. The prize for coming furthest went to Amiee from Carlsbad and the youngest present was Elizabeth from the Cathedral. Both women got door prizes and 7 other lucky ladies took home a shamrock plant.
Bishop Vono started by noting that there are many kinds of relationships. There are also many kinds of divine relationships or encounters, too. Jesus calls us to the ethics of Love. However, there are many definitions of love. (The Bishop asked each lady to write their definition of love. These were read at the end of the retreat.) He asked if we are “known by love”.
Prince Andrew, in Tolstoy’s War and Peace says, “Love is life. All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love. Everything is, everything exists, only because I love. Everything is united by it alone. Love is God, and to die means that I, a particle of love, shall return to the general and eternal source.”
A higher meaning of love is found in John’s Gospel. It has
been said that ‘Love is a sermon you live to see and experience rather than
hear’. John says that the fullness of God is Jesus Christ, as in John 3:16 and
the story of the vine and branches.
What are the implications for believing that God is Love and
that we are connected to Jesus? It means that we are connected to God and
therefore we [too] are love incarnate. This is because love is the result of
connection to God. Bishop Kallistos Ware said, “The whole person is on the one side open to God, and on the other side open to other people. The isolated individual is not a real person, for a real person lives in and for others. This idea...could be summed up under the word love. We become truly personal by loving God and by loving other humans. By love, I don’t mean merely an emotional feeling, but a fundamental attitude. In its deepest sense, love is the life, the energy, of the Creator in us. We are not truly human as long as we are turned in on ourselves. We become whole only insofar as we face others, and relate to them.”
We are not objects or servants or slaves of God-we are
friends. Jesus said “I have called you friends,” which is a deeper
relationship. We are loved as we love a true friend. Throughout history, many
have followed this love: Albert Schweitzer and Martin Luther King to name just
a couple.
We are each called to be a vehicle of God’s self-giving
love. In First John we are admonished “little children let us love one another…”
Love flows through us, to others, then through them to still others, and on and
on.The Bishop noted we receive [God’s] love in order to give it away. Tolstoy said “The simplest and shortest ethical precept is to be served by others as little as possible, and to serve others as much as possible.” Madeline L’Engle agrees. She says, “Following Christ has nothing to do with success as the world sees success. It has to do with love.”
We are
told to abide in Christ be keeping his commandments-the greatest of which is to
love others as ourselves. Too often we don’t know how to love ourselves because
of our brokenness, sinfulness and weakness. (The afternoon talk focused on Love as Life in Relationship to one Another) When we do abide in love we find
our highest joy. After lunch Bishop Vono spoke on Love as Life in Relationship to Each Other. His afternoon talk will be posted next week.
Videos of the Bishop's morning talk (in 2 parts) are at:
http://youtu.be/hE5iYHZDB_4
(Part 1)
http://youtu.be/CqfENkTMrms (Part 2)