From
the treatise On Spiritual Perfection by Diadochus of Photice,
bishop
All our love must be for
God
No one who is in love with himself
is capable of loving God. The man who loves God is the one who mortifies
his self-love for the sake of the immeasurable blessings of divine love.
Such a man never seeks his own glory but only the glory of God. If a person
loves himself he seeks his own glory, but the man who loves God loves the
glory of his Creator. Anyone alive to the love of God can be recognized from
the way he constantly strives to glorify him by fulfilling all his commandments
and by delighting in his own abasement. Because of his great majesty it is
fitting that God should receive glory, but if he hopes to win God’s
favor it becomes man to be humble. If we possess this love for God, we too
will rejoice in his glory as Saint John the Baptist did, and we shall never
stop repeating: His fame must increase, but mine must
diminish.
. . . Anyone who loves God in
the depths of his heart has already been loved by God. In fact, the measure
of a man’s love for God depends upon how deeply aware he is of God’s
love for him. When this awareness is keen it makes whoever possesses it long
to be enlightened by the divine light, and this longing is so intense that
it seems to penetrate his very bones. He loses all consciousness of himself
and is entirely transformed by the love of God.
Such a man lives in this life
and at the same time does not live in it, for although he still inhabits
his body, he is constantly leaving it in spirit because of the love that
draws him toward God. Once the love of God has released him from self-love,
the flame of divine love never ceases to burn in his heart and he remains
united to God by an irresistible longing. As the Apostle says: If we are
taken out of ourselves it is for the love of God; if we are brought back
to our senses it is for your sake.
—Saint Diadochus of Photice,
bishop
(Office of Readings, Friday
Second Week in Ordinary Time
  
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