St. Augustine expressed his love relationship with God in these words: "Late have I loved you, O beauty so ancient and new! Late have I loved you. Behold you were ever within me, and I abroad seeking you there. I...rushed madly about in the midst of forms beautiful which you made. You were ever with me, but I was not with you. The very things which had not been, unless they were in you, kept me from you. You called me by name, you cried aloud to me, and your voice pierced my deafness.

Listen to the words of St. Theresa of Lisieux: "I have no longer any desire except that of loving Jesus unto folly. Yes, it is love alone that attracts me. I no longer desire suffering nor death, and yet, I love both. I have desired them for a long time. I have had suffering; I have come close to dying....Now, abandonment is my only guide. I can no longer ask ardently for anything except that God's will may be perfectly accomplished in my soul. (St. Therese of the Child Jesus)

Once we fall in love with Jesus, then we want nothing more than to do his will. That was the key to Jesus' own life. He was so in love with the Abba, the Father, that he wanted nothing more than to do the will of the Father, even to the death of the cross. Pleasing the other is the only thing that matters when love is the bond between persons. It is not a chore or a burden; it is a delight and a privilege.  "Love consists...in the firmness of our determination to try to please God in everything. (Teresa of Avila) (To be continued)