For those of you who have studied in a Jesuit school or are belong to a Jesuit parish, then you may have heard St. Ignatius’ Prayer for Generosity
Lord, teach me to be generous.
Teach me to serve you as you deserve;
to give and not to count the cost,
to fight and not to heed the wounds,
to toil and not to seek for rest,
to labor and not to ask for reward,
save that of knowing that I do your will.
To love without thinking of gain is definitely one of the hardest things to do given the fact that it is human to get hurt if our loving and giving isn’t reciprocated or acknowledged. However, if you think about it, it is not our loving or giving that hurts us but our expectation of being loved back that causes us pain.
Osho says that it is easier to love God than to love his children! And yet it is truly amazing when we love someone AFTER seeing their ugly side! Of course I don’t mean we allow others to treat us like doormats, we don’t allow others to take us for granted.
Parental love is surely one of the purest forms of love that most of us witness. We, as children, may have often tested the limits of our parent’s love for us with all the crazy stuff we do and say. And yet, we know that they will always stand by us. As George Strait sings, It’s a love without end, Amen.
Kenrick Vaz 