From the letter to the Church in Thyatira (Rev. 2:18-29) we learn that greater holiness comes from doing all things, even the ordinary things of daily life, with a deeper intensity of love and focus on God. This is what we read: "I know your deeds--your love and faith and service--as well as your patient endurance; I know also that your efforts of recent times are greater than ever"(Rev 2:19). As we grow in the deeper life of the Spirit we come to the realization that the basic call and response of life is love. We come through the gifts of the Spirit to the understanding that the Command of love is the central message of revelation for a purpose. Love is the key that opens the door to eternal life. Love is the narrow path that leads to life on high. Love simplifies a life that is otherwise complicated by non-essentials. We are called to fall in love with the greatest of Lovers, the personification of love-God!

St. Theresa of Lisieux discovered this message early on in her life. "At last I have found my vocation. My vocation is love." What she came to realize is that what God has shown us in his command to love is what would complete us as human persons. God is love. We are made in his image and likeness, sharing his own divine life. The more our life is love, the more we become fully alive and fully self actuated. Love which is selfless and other focused brings us into right order with God, with others and with ourselves. She would later write: " Among the countless graces I have received this year, perhaps the greatest has been that of being able to grasp in all its fullness the meaning of love....Jesus made me understand what the will (of the Father) was by the words he used at the last supper when he gave his"new commandment" and told his apostles "to love one another as he had loved them."...When Jesus gave his apostles a "new commandment," his own commandment, he did not only ask that we should love our neighbors as ourselves, but that we should love them as he loves them and as he will love them to the end of time." (St. Therese of Lisieux)