December 31. New year’s Eve.    8th Teaching. The Teaching of Teachings: Love
The journey forward into God is a journey backward to an original innocence we never fully recover but where a sort of semi-paradise happens when love turns into charity. This is the highest of all loves, which Christ defined as the love of God and the love of neighbor, the total love of God leading to true love of neighbor and the true love of neighbor leading to the love of God.  “Let us love the Lord God with all our heart and all our soul, with all our mind and all our strength and with fortitude and with total understanding, with all of our power, with every effort, every affection, every emotion, every desire, and every wish.” —Rule of 1221, Chapter XXIII        

“To be part of the song of creation is to pardon, forgive and accept the weaknesses of others by allowing them to be what they are and loving them as they are.   Forgiveness is an excess of goodness given to another for the sake of a new future.   This superabundant goodness bridges the separation between human persons or between them and nonhuman creation.   Those who follow the path of peace and reconciliation are liberated from the blindness of heart and can see the presence of the Most High in the simple things of creation.”  Care for Creation (p90)