1

For November 7-28, 2018

Virtue of the Month: Love

Loving God above all; Loving Your Neighbor as Yourself

In our culture, the word love is used for all sorts of relationships and feelings. We love pizza, the

newest superhero movie, our cat, our brother, our parents and the Lord Jesus. But not all of these

ways of loving are the same. The Christian virtue of Love (also called Charity) is a deep habit of

responding to God and to other human beings with love rather than fear, mistrust or selfishness. If we

love God, we spend time praying to be close to Him. If we love God, we perform actions that show

our love for Him. In the same way, if we love the people around us, we treat them the way we would

want to be treated. This is impossible if we see the other people as competition. For example, how

often is it that you want someone else to stop talking so that you can voice your opinion? How often

do you wish other people had less fame or fortune so that you could have more? Do you expect

people to respect you without offering them respect first? God calls us to something greater. He tells

us to love our neighbor as ourselves. Then he goes even further. Jesus tells us to love our enemies too.

Living the virtue of Christian Love is impossible apart from God. Only God can help us love without

fear, anger, pride, selfishness or brokenness. In order to break free of these obstacles, we need to give

God our sins in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, ask Him to free us from the obstacles that get in the

way of our love for other people and actively seek opportunities to show others real Christian love.

Discussion: Do you think you could recognize real Christian love? What would it look

like?

Prayer Come, Holy Spirit, open our minds and hearts to receive God’s word. We

ask this in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Read aloud: 1 John 4:7-21

1) How does John describe Christian love?

2) Where does Christian love come from?

3) How are the Father, Son and Holy Spirit active in the virtue of Love?

Discipleship Take Home Packet

Love: Loving God; Loving Your Neighbor as Yourself/ Family Name: _____________________

2

Saintly Example

Saint Therese of Lisieux

(1873-1897, France)

Therese was born into a family that loved God a great deal.

Though Therese had 8 brothers and sisters, only 5 of the siblings

lived to be adults. And they all became nuns.

When Therese was four and a half years old, her mother died from breast cancer and her oldest sister,

Pauline became like a mother to her. But 5 years later, Pauline became a religious sister and she left

to enter a convent (a building where nuns live). Therese was really sad and the rest of her family tried

to make her happy. Therese was a very sensitive girl and cried whenever someone made her feel

uncomfortable. She was so concerned with her own feelings that she had a hard time doing things for

other people. But one Christmas Jesus did something extraordinary for Therese—he helped her care

about other people’s feelings more than her own.

After that, Therese wanted to do things for other people. She also felt that God was asking her to be a

religious sister and to join the same convent that many of her sisters had entered. However, she was

too young. When her father took her on a trip to Rome she actually begged the Pope to let her

become a nun. She had to be carried away by the guards.

Eventually, Therese was able to join the convent. But she knew it would be hard for her to do great

deeds for other people there. So, she began to love others by doing little things for them—things that

other people didn’t notice and things that were hard for her. For example, she began spending more

time with the nuns that she didn’t like and she would eat the leftovers no one else wanted.

By age 24 she was very sick and she was asked to write down her memories to that others could read

them. She wrote them down in a book called “The Story of a Soul.” Though she was sick, she tried to

look cheerful and make other people happy. She did such a good job being cheerful that some people

thought she was faking her illness. But she died soon after.

Therese is known for following what she called “the little way.” Though she didn’t do any

extraordinary things, she did a lot of little things to love other people. In 1925 she was declared a

saint by the Catholic Church.

“My vocation is Love.” - St. Therese of Lisieux

Love: Loving God; Loving Your Neighbor as Yourself/ Family Name: _____________________

3

Activity: Recognizing Christian Love

It can be hard to recognize the difference between Christian “agape” love and

other kinds of things we call love. First, let’s practice learning how to identify

something that’s a little more clear—trees.

Can you tell the difference between a Maple

tree, an Oak tree or a Birch tree? Test your

skills and learn what trees are around you by

following this identification quiz.

Tree Identification

Find a tree in your yard or neighborhood. Answer the following questions.

1) Does the tree lose its leaves in the winter or not?

2) Does the tree have needles or leaves?

3) Are the small branches on the tree symmetrical (they come out of the large

branch in the same place on both sides) or do they come out in varied places?

4) Pluck one of the leaves or a small arm of tree needles. Go to:

http://eekwi.org/veg/treekey/index.htm and answer the questions to discover

what kind of tree you found.

5) Tape your leaf or needles to the next page and identify what tree it came from.

Do this for as many trees as you’d like.

Love: Loving God; Loving Your Neighbor as Yourself/ Family Name: _____________________

4

Activity: Leaf Identification

Tape your leaf below:

What kind of tree did you identify?____________________________________

Tape your leaf below:

What kind of tree did you identify?____________________________________

Love: Loving God; Loving Your Neighbor as Yourself/ Family Name: _____________________

5

Activity: Recognizing Christian Love

Love has often been classified into the 4 categories of: eros (romantic love),

storge (family love), philia (brotherly love) and agape (Christian love). But some

of the ways that we use the word love in English are not represented by these

categories. On the following pages we’ll explore another way of classifying the

relationships in our lives. Regardless of the way we label these types of love, the

most important thing is to be able to identify Christian Love. Do you have

Christian love in your life?

List 4 relationships that you have in your life. For example, you might choose

your mother, brother, teacher and dog. Then look at the chart on the next page to

see what kind of love that relationship has. Write down the type of love below.

Then read the explanation on page 7.

1) Name: _____________________ Relationship: ______________________

Type of Love: ____________________________________________________

2) Name: _____________________ Relationship: ______________________

Type of Love: ____________________________________________________

3) Name: _____________________ Relationship: ______________________

Type of Love: ____________________________________________________

4) Name: _____________________ Relationship: ______________________

Type of Love: ____________________________________________________

Did you agree with what the chart said about your relationships? Why or why

not? How many of your relationships are based in Christian love?

Love: Loving God; Loving Your Neighbor as Yourself/ Family Name: _____________________

6

Activity: What kind of love is it?

Start Here

Is this a love for a person?

YES NO Love of Creation

Self-

interested

Love

Mutual Love Affectionate Love

Sacrificial Love Christian Love

I try to love this

person the way I

love myself.

YES

NO The way I show my love for this

person is supported by the

bible and the Church.

NO YES

I know how to set

boundaries in this

relationship so I don’t feel

taken advantage of.

There is nothing this

person could do to

make me walk away

from the relationship.

NO YES

This relationship is built on common

goals and dreams.

YES NO

I expect both people to put in an equal

amount of work in this relationship.

YES NO

The best part of

this relationship is

how I feel when I’m

around this person.

NO

YES

Love: Loving God; Loving Your Neighbor as Yourself/ Family Name: _____________________

7

Activity: Recognizing Christian Love

Characteristics: Based on common goals and dreams, both people are ex-

pected to put in equal amounts of time and energy into the relationship—

sometimes described as each person contributing 50/50.

Fruits: Teamwork and accountability

Shortfalls: This relationship has limited commitment--when one person doesn’t meet expectations the

other feels free to leave; this relationship has the effect of a contract rather than a lifelong commitment

Characteristics: You may love an object, idea or animal a lot, but they cannot

love you back to the same degree. This love is definitely more one-sided.

Good Fruits: Short-term happiness, good if used in moderation

Shortfalls: Cannot bring lasting happiness; can lose sight of opportunities for greater love if you are too

focused on this type of love, can lead to isolation from other people

Love of Creation

Characteristics: Focused on what the other person can give you (money,

security, popularity, fun); can be one sided or mutual love

Fruits: You get temporary happiness

Shortfalls: This relationship will last only as long as the person is useful to you and meets your needs; you

can become more selfish if you focus on these kinds of relationships

Self-Interested Love

Characteristics: Focused on the good feelings you get while around the other

person; you say what you need to in order to keep them in relationship with

you; you only want to be around them when they are doing or saying something fun or interesting

Fruits: Temporary feelings of happiness or contentment

Shortfalls: This love cannot bring you long term happiness and is dependent on your feelings

Affectionate Love

Mutual Love

Characteristics: Selfless love of the other person regardless of their actions;

can be exhausting when other person does not return the love

Fruits: Practice of selflessness and patience

Shortfalls: May lead you into enabling bad behavior or being taken advantage of

Sacrificial Love

Characteristics: Flows from a relationship with Jesus; supported by the bible

and Church teaching; fulfils Corinthians 13: 4-8: “Love is patient, love is kind. It

does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it

is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but

rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never

fails.” This kind of love is only possible when you have given God control over the relationship.

Christian Love

Love: Loving God; Loving Your Neighbor as Yourself/ Family Name: _____________________

8

Activity: Sharing Christian Love

Make a Thanksgiving card for someone who is sick or homebound.

Father Jerry will make sure that people in need receive them.

Directions: Cut out the big rectangle on the dotted line. Fold the rectangle in

half to make a card. Decorate the inside with Thanksgiving pictures & messages.

Be sure to bring your card back to church by November 18th.

From Your Most Blessed Sacrament Parish Family

Love: Loving God; Loving Your Neighbor as Yourself/ Family Name: _____________________