Dear Reader,

I had an amazing experience several weeks ago while praying at church.

I’ve been praying to love with the love that Jesus has for each of us.

It isn’t an easy thing, to love as Jesus loves.  He loves us whether we are saints or sinners, if we love Him or don’t, when we are at our best or our worst.  No matter what we do, what we say, what we think, Jesus loves us.  It is an awesome thing (with the appropriate use of the word “awesome”) to ponder.

On this particular day, as I am praying about my desire to love as He loves, I became overwhelmed with emotion and started to weep.  Father calls this “the gift of tears”, I call it a major pain since I am not a very silent weeper and I am mortified by the thought of bringing attention to myself inside the church.  However, my thoughts on this “gift” aside, I had a sense of joy and peace that washed over me as I prayed and wept.  Almost as though I was blanketed with the warmth of someone’s arms being wrapped around you in a loving embrace.

In that moment…that amazing moment.  I knew.  I knew exactly what the love of God feels like.  Even now as I type this post, I have tears running down my face because I know and I can remember and I can tap back into that moment.

And I realized, I wasn’t crying because I am not worthy of God’s love or because I am a sinner or because of the beauty of the church.  I was crying because I seem to have been gifted with the phenomenal ability to feel the love of Christ in a personal way when I am in church where the true presence of Christ lives in the Eucharist in the tabernacle.  To be completely honest, words cannot adequately express what I felt.  I wish, dear reader, I could share the feeling with you now.

Does it sound crazy?  Of course it does.  Is it crazy?  Am I crazy?  Perhaps.  What I do know for sure is that the feeling was like nothing I’ve ever experienced and those moments…felt as though I was being lit up from the inside and has shown me the love I should have for others.  That, naturally, continues to be a work in progress.

I pray that each of you has the opportunity to have the same experience.  Your life will be altered.  Mine certainly has.

As always, please pray for me as I do for you.

Yours in Christ’s Love,

Mrs. Summitt