Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. That is not our business. – Thomas Merton
Bring love into your home, for this is where our love for each other must start. – St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. – 1 Corinthians 13:1-3
For good, as it is good, and known as good, enkindles love, and lights love all the more according to the good it comprehends. – Dante’s Paradiso (Anthony Esolen, translator)
There is only one thing for us to do during the night of this life: to love, to love Jesus with all the strength of our heart, and to save souls for Him that He may be loved. Oh! the joy of causing Jesus to be loved! – St. Therese of Lisieux, as quoted in Sermon in a Sentence, Volume 1
God inscribed in the humanity of man and woman the vocation, and thus the capacity and responsibility, of love and communion. Love is therefore the fundamental and innate vocation of every human being. – St. John Paul the Great, Familiaris Consortio
Because you are God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with heartfelt mercy, with kindness, humility, meekness and patience. Bear with one another; forgive whateve grievances you have against one another. Forgive as the Lord has forgiven you. Over all these virtues put on love, which binds the rest together and makes them perfect. Christ’s peace must reign in your hearts, since as members of the one body you have been called to that peace. Dedicate yourselves to thankfulness. Let the word of Christ, rich as it is, dwell in you. In wisdom made perfect, instruct and admonish one another. Sing gratefully to God from your hearts in psalms, hymns and inspired songs. Whatever you do, whether in speech or in action, do it in the name of the Lord Jesus. Give thanks to God the Father through him. – Colossians 3:12-17 (RSVCE)
This is the glorious duty of man: to pray and to love. – St. John Vianney
It is love alone that gives worth to all things. – St. Teresa of Avila
Love is sufficient of itself, it gives pleasure by itself and because of itself. It is its own merit, its own reward. Love looks for no cause outside itself, no effect, beyond itself. Its profit lies in its practice. I love because I love, I love that I may love. Love is a great thing so long as it continually returns to its fountainhead, flows back to its source, always drawing from there the water which constantly replenishes it. Of all the movements, sensations and feelings of the soul, love is the only one in which the creature can respond to the Creator and make some sort of similar return however unequal though it be. For when God loves, all he desires is to be loved in return; the sole purpose of his love is to be loved, in the knowledge that those who love him are made happy by their love of him. – from a sermon by St. Bernard of Clairvaux (as found in the Liturgy of the Hours)
On the question of relating to our fellowman – our neighbor’s spiritual need transcends every commandment. Everything else we do is a means to an end. But love is an end already, since God is love. – St. Teresia Benedicta
Love is the most necessary of all virtues. Love in the person who preaches the word of God is like fire in a musket. If a person were to throw a bullet with his hands, he would hardly make a dent in anything; but if the person takes the same bullet and ignites some gunpowder behind it, it can kill. It is much the same with the word of God. If it is spoken by someone who is filled with the fire of charity- the fire of love of God and neighbor- it will work wonders. – St. Anthony Mary Claret
I found several quotes on this page at Aggie Catholic’s Top 50 Saint Quotes.
Living Differently 