As you begin your retreat, pause for a few moments and allow yourself to grow still. Let go of any distracting thoughts. Take several slow, deep breaths. Become aware of the great love God has for you.

1 Corinthians 13:13

So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Paul tells us in his first letter to the Corinthians that of the three spiritual gifts bestowed by God, the greatest of them is love. To see the truth of Paul's words, we need only to look to Jesus. His entire life is an example of the kind of love that is in harmony with God's purposes and the Kingdom of God that he proclaimed. When we grow distracted by the world's passing pleasures, we can recall these virtues that last forever.

How have I experienced the kind of harmony that comes from God's shared love?

In what ways am I being invited by God to love others and myself, according to God's plan?

(Pray to God, using these words or those of your own.)

Loving God, my faith, my hope, and my love finds its wellspring in you. I pray that they may ever increase in me and be offered as a gift to others to give glory to your name.