Awaken to love. (excerpts from 'The Way to Love: The Last Meditations of Anthony de Mello') : An article from: U.S. Catholic
by
Anthony de Mello*
*The authors of this book have yet to be linked to users in our database! It would be very cool if you helped us out here, via the Add Authors page. :)
Added on: Saturday, July 22 2006
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loving life
The Way to Love: The Last Meditations of Anthony De Mello.
My dear friend Frederico Chapur handed me a very small book as we drank Yerba Mate at the Zinc cafe in Laguna Beach. I took this little book, and Fred said to me ” D-Man, your only problem is your to attached to your life to enjoy it “. That seemed such an odd statement. Don't I want to be attached? Isn't it better that when you love a women that you grow together as one? To have that persons interest matter?
That is when I opened the little book to glance down and read: ” Has it ever occured to you that you can only love when you are alone? It means to see a person, a thing, a situation, as it really is and not as you imagine it to be, and to give it the response it deserves. You cannot love what you do not even see. And what prevents you from seeing? Your concepts, your categories, your prejudices, and projections, your needs, and attachments, the labels you have drawn from your conditioning and past experiences.”
Then I glanced up to the top on this page and read: ” And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the moutain by himself to pray - Matthew 14:23
After all my time away from the church, my dearest friend gives me a challenging personal growth book and each of the meditations began with a Bible verse.
Over the next 8 weeks this little book challenged me in so many ways. It taught me how I myself through my own social programming destroyed at times loving relationships. The meditations also gave me a totally different perspective on many Bible versus. They went from doom, gloom and punishment, to love, acceptance and joy.
After having picked up all sorts of methods, techniques, spiritual exercises, formulas; and after fruitless striving and becoming confused, this book awoke me to a simple truth; Effort may change the behaviour but it does not change the person. You truly win the love of others not by practice of techniques but by being a certain kind of person. This comes by Grace, a Grace called Awareness, a grace called Looking, Observing, Understanding.
Enjoy this beautiful little book.
Love and Gratitude,
Darren Meade