“We enter into the Church - to unite ourselves with our fellow people, with the joys and sorrows of each and everyone, to feel that they are our own, to pray for everyone, to have care for their salvation, to forget about ourselves, to do everything for them as Christ did for us.” 

- St Porphyrios, Wounded by Love, pgs 88-89. 

Reflection: 

How do we unite ourselves like this with everyone? By loving God and neighbor.(1)

When we unite ourselves to everyone by loving God and neighbor, our life will feel more fulfilling, our purpose more clear, and joyful. By loving God and neighbor we put them first, a way of living which edifies and strengthens our heart and soul - because imitating Christ’s sacrificial love edifies and strengthens us. 

It is in the journey toward uniting ourselves with everyone else that we become our most authentic self, while becoming the one Body of Christ; the Church. 

The qualities it takes to love God and unite ourselves with our neighbor, along with the relationships formed with God and one another, shape our heart to be Christ like, resulting in the freedom to live as our truest and best self.  

The more we give, love, think of, care for, pray for, and walk along with people through their joys and sorrows (making them our own), the more Christ-like we become, the more freedom we will live in, and the most sincere joy we will experience. 

“Christ is revealed in that unity between His love and ourselves: the Church. On my own I am not the Church, but together with you.”(2)

Resources:

1) Mark 12:30-31

2) St Porphyrios, Wounded by Love, pg 88.