Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:30-31
“May God preserve me from being rich while they are indigent, from enjoying robust health if I do not try to cure their diseases, from eating good food, clothing myself well and resting in my home if I do not share with them a piece of my bread and give them, in the measure of my abilities, part of my clothes and if I do not welcome them into my home.”
Gregory of Nazianzus in On the Love for the Poor in Social Thought, ed. Peter C. Phan, Message of the Fathers of the Church, vol. 20 (Wilmington, DE: Michael Glazier) 19.
Since I stood in the room (Hagia Irene, pictured above) where the first Council of Constantinople added five articles to the Nicene Creed in A.D. 381, it got me thinking.
As I stated the last two days, I decided to research who was in the room and review any extant writings from Council participants.
This led me to explore Gregory of Nazianzus. He was there, and he gives us the next few posts. Today he offers us this prayer from his classic work, On the Love for the Poor.
We must think keenly about the implications of this. Gregory basically spells out what it means to love our neighbor. It means to care for them as we care for ourselves.
What would your life look like if you cared for someone in need this next month as you cared for yourself? What would change in your spending? And in your giving?
Pray the prayer again and then ask the Holy Spirit to guide your steps.