Love Requires Sacrifice

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This is going to sound stupid, but I realized something big today. As I was walking to my anthropology class, I was thinking about how tired I was. While I had to stay up late to do homework, and get up early this morning; last night's sleep felt like I had closed my eyes for five minutes only to have my alarm begin to go off. Although I felt tired, I remembered what one of my best friends said yesterday at lunch: when we offer things up, this gives even the littlest things meaning. This was something I had forgotten. That is, I had forgotten that the reason why we offer things up to God is for Him to give our everyday sacrifices and sufferings meaning.  And so, upon waking up and knowing how tired I was, I decided to offer it up on my way to the cafeteria and after breakfast, on my way to class, I continued to think about this. In thinking about it, and praying with Jesus about it, I realized that just as Love requires sacrifice between people, so Love requires sacrifice on our part for God! It is a two-way street. As Jesus is the Spouse of our soul, not only did He make the Ultimate Sacrifice for us through His Passion and Death, but we are called to make sacrifices for Him, too. This is why Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque said, "For from that time He was always present to me under the form of the crucifix or of an Ecce Homo, or as carrying His cross. This filled me with compassion and so great a love of suffering that whatever I had to bear seemed but light in comparison with the ardent desire I had to suffer, that thereby I might render myself conformable to my suffering Jesus." This is also why Saint Maximilian Kolbe said, "Let us remember that love lives through sacrifice and is nourished by giving. Without sacrifice, there is no love." For our love for Christ to grow, it must be nourished by the giving of ourselves, by sacrifices made for Him and His Love. And although suffering and making sacrifices are never easy, Love will make it easy, for Love makes all things possible.
Ad maiorem Dei gloriam.

P.S. God is so good!!! As I wrote this, I realized that Jesus answered a prayer that has been on my heart. I have been asking Him to help me to love Him more. And as I wrote, "For our love for Christ to grow, it must be nourished by...sacrifices," it hit me that this was the answer to my prayer! Thanks be to God for His Goodness and Mercy!


"Don't ever forget to love." 

~ Saint Maximilian Kolbe 

"I prefer the monotony of obscure sacrifices to all ecstasies. To pick up a pin for love can conert a soul."

~ Saint Therese of Lisieux 








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