Week 2 - Precious in God’s Eyes
Theme:
God is looking at me with a loving gaze.
He tells me: You are precious in my eyes.
If I have not yet done so, I place myself before God who is looking at me, at all of us, with love.
Music: Hildegard von Bingen: O eterne Deus. CD Vox Aeternitatis. Performed by Matelde viola, Stefano Sabene, Schola Romana Ensemble
Spotify Link:
https://open.spotify.com/track/3wZxBwscyxH1X98CRMtUi4?si=fbad4093d10544cd
YouTube Link:
https://youtu.be/SasX5QIVZIA?si=oG3Mb_9is1rjUKA3
O eterne Deus,
nunc tibi placeat ut in amore illo ardeas,
ut membra illa simus, que fecisti in eodem amore,
cum Filium tuum genuisti in prima aurora
ante omnem creaturam,
et inspice necessitatem hanc que super nos cadit,
et abstrahe eam a nobis propter Filium tuum,
et perduc nos in leticiam salutis.
O eternal God,
may you be pleased to blaze once more in love
and to reforge us as the limbs you fashioned in that love,
when first you bore your Son upon the primal dawn
before all things created.
Look upon this need that over us has fallen,
draw it off from us according to your Son,
and lead us back into salvation’s wholesome happiness.
For the mystic Hildgard van Bingen the first light of dawn was the symbol of God’s love for His creation, and in that way also a symbol of His love for us. Imagine you are standing in that light of dawn – the primordial light in which God revealed His love, His love which is also for me. What goes through my mind as I stand there? What do I see, hear, feel, smell?
1 John 4, 7-12: God Is Love
7 Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and he who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God; for God is love.
God doesn’t give love, He is IS love. Where do I find love in my life? In which people, in what things, in which moments?
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9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins.
This love does not begin with me – it comes from God. I do not need to earn that love, only to receive it. I investigate whether there is a spot in me or in my life which is in need of attention, healing, tenderness or forgiveness. I can remain there, by that spot, in silence for a little while, together with God who is Love.
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11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No man has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
We find God in other people. I look back on recent times in my life. Maybe a moment comes to mind when someone reacted to me with gentleness, understanding or attentiveness. Or, conversely, that I was there for someone else. Did I recognise something of God’s love in that moment?
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Music: O eterne Deus