Virtuous Women

What is love? Synonym for Purity of Heart

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Becacause to love is to be known by God. And to avoid hearing “I do not know you.”

Love God

St Basil says people follow God out of fear, obedience or love. I still need to fear amd obey God, but need to love Him.
- “Who can please God? Either we please Him fearing tortures and then we are in the state of a slave; or we fulfill the commandments of God in hope of reward, for our own benefit, and therefore we are like hirelings; or we do good for the sake of good itself, and then we are in the state of a son. For, when a son reaches mature age and reason, fulfills the will of his father not because he fears punishment, and not in order to receive a reward from him, but because he cherishes a special love for him and reveres him as his father, he loves him and is convinced that all the possessions of his father belong to him also. Such a one is able to hear (Gal. 4:7), Thou art no longer a bondservant, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. Surely he no longer fears God, as we have said, by that initial fear, but he loves Him, as also St. Anthony said, "I no longer fear God, but I love Him."
“But who are those who love Him? They are, so to speak, such as are like-

minded with Him, and anxious to follow in His footsteps” - St Cyril (Commentary on Luke)
“If the clear proof of love for Him is keeping His commands or His word,

the opposite surely also would be true. The proof of refusing to love Him

is to pay no attention to His command and to thrust aside what He has

ordered as if it came from those who habitually do evil.” - St Cyril (Commentary on John)
“So the person who chooses to live without love is not in God, instead

lying outside of a relationship with God” - St Cyril (Commentary on the Twelve Prophets)

How to Love God

For she loved much, Repentance
- St Ephraim “for she loved much”
Love others (how will he love God whom he has not seen)
- Love Others
  - 1 Cor 13
  - Even moving mountains without love is nothing
  - Love suffers long (patient)
    - A mother who is waiting for her son to come back to the Lord, or to come back to her - she doesn’t reach a certain point and stop waiting. Or she says “I’ve waited long enough” - because she loves him. So she is patient. Even if she is suffering - she waits. She suffers long. Because she loves her son.
  - Love is kind
  - Love does not envy
  - Love does not parade itself, is not puffed up
  - Love does not behave rudely
  - Love does not seek its own
  - Love is not provoked
  - Love thinks no evil
  - Love does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth
  - Love bears all things
  - Love believes all things
  - Love hopes all things
  - Love endures all things
  - Love never fails
Discernment (St Peter)
- St Peter Loved but without discernment. He didn’t know his limits.
- St Antony quote
With all your soul, mind. Strength
- Emotion/faith + Actions (see HHPS 10 Concepts)