Essay Excerpt: Love is Always Conditional

Posted by Leonard J. DeLorenzo on Apr 29, 2021 11:48:00 AM

Editorial Note: This excerpt is taken from an essay by the same name originally published at Church Life Journal on December 18, 2018.

We want to say that love is unconditional. It seems right. It is equal parts comforting and challenging. It is comforting because if I am loved, then there is nothing I can do to lose that. It is challenging because in order to love, I have to will to be untroubled by obstacles. We do not want to say love is conditional because we fear submitting love to the twisted logic of relationship terrorism: if you do not meet my demands, I deprive you of what is good for you, or vice versa. We think of conditions as qualifications and we do not want to attach qualifications to love. So we say love is unconditional. But that is wrong. Love is always conditional.

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Topics: leonardjdelorenzo, love, saints, self-giving love, feast days, church life journal

The New Beginning

Posted by Leonard J. DeLorenzo on Apr 5, 2020 7:19:00 AM

Editorial note: This blog is the final installment in a six-part series featuring our free Lenten resource, "A Scriptural Pilgrimage to Christ Through Lent," written by Lenny DeLorenzo.

This is the end of the end and the beginning of everything else.

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Topics: healing, Lent, leonardjdelorenzo, downloadable resources, liturgical year

The Limits of Hope

Posted by Leonard J. DeLorenzo on Mar 29, 2020 7:47:00 AM

Editorial note: This blog is the fifth in a six-part series featuring our free Lenten resource, "A Scriptural Pilgrimage to Christ Through Lent," written by Lenny DeLorenzo.

There is no limit to hope because Christ has gone beyond the last horizon.

There are times when we put ourselves at a great distance from God, due to our own sin and our own neglect. Like a sheep who has wandered from the flock, I find myself alone and isolated. It is all my own doing. I rejected the care of the Shepherd, and now I have no one to care for me.

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Topics: healing, Lent, leonardjdelorenzo, Hope, downloadable resources, liturgical year, truth, vulnerability

The Depths of Mercy

Posted by Leonard J. DeLorenzo on Mar 22, 2020 7:26:00 AM
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Topics: healing, Lent, leonardjdelorenzo, downloadable resources, liturgical year, truth, vulnerability

The Hidden Life

Posted by Leonard J. DeLorenzo on Mar 15, 2020 7:06:00 AM
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Topics: healing, Lent, leonardjdelorenzo, downloadable resources, liturgical year, truth

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The McGrath Institute Blog helps Catholics live and hand on their faith in Jesus Christ, especially in the family, home and parish, and cultivates and inspires everyday leaders to live out the fullness and richness of their faith in the simple, little ways that make up Church life.

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