In God Makes the Rivers to Flow; An Anthology of the World’s Sacred Poetry & Prose, Eknath Easwaran includes a selection from Saint Therese of Lisieux entitled “Living on Love.”  I’ve written the following poem-like reflections inspired by this selection.

The Love I Seek

Dying of Love is what I hope for.

When I shall see my bonds broken,

My God will be my Great Reward.

I don’t desire to possess other goods,

I want to be set on fire with his Love.

I want to see Him, to unite myself to Him forever.

That is my Heaven… that is my destiny:

            Living on Love!!!

—Saint Therese of Lisieux

Living on Love. Dying of Love.

Being suffused with God’s Love.

Being transported by Love to everlasting bliss and glory.

Giving without counting the cost.

Serving selflessly.

It seems impossible.

How do the holy ones do it?

How do they find the courage to erase the self?

How do they find joy in living on nothing,

on giving all that they have?

It seems impossible.

All I think about is myself.

I think about the food I will feed myself

and where it comes from.

I think about the clothes I will put on myself

and how to acquire more.

I think of the time I will spend with myself.

I think of the things I will do for myself.

I think of how to support myself.

I think of what I think.

I think of the things people have done to me.

I think of the things people have done for me.

I think of the things I have.

I think of the books I will read.

I think of the places I will go.

I think little of love.

Except when I lose myself in meditation.

That is when I get a taste of the impossible.

I picture a beam of love and light

coming down from heaven and filling my heart.

I picture my heart expanding to hold the universe.

I imagine I am sending love to every being.

And I feel glorious.

If I could maintain this state of expansion,

if I could live on the love of the universe,

and circulate that love wherever I go,

then maybe I could give without counting the cost,

then maybe I could serve without self.

It seems impossible.

Yet, my deepest longing is to experience

union with God, with Love.

That is the salvation I seek.

I think all I think about is myself, my own enlightenment.

But what I’m really thinking about

is how I can be the Love I seek.