God Loves Us Passionately Week 4: God is Calling You by Name

​God Loves Us Passionately
Week 4   God is Calling You by Name 

Opening Prayer
Lord Jesus, we praise you.  Your love is infinite.  You lovingly seek and find each one of us, no matter where we are or what we have done.  Forgive us for the times we’ve doubted or failed to be moved by your love for us.  In your Scripture you tell us, “As the Father loves me, so I also love you.  Remain in my love.” (John 15:9)  Thank you for loving each of us personally and deeply, and inviting us to live in your love.  Help us to know, not just with our head but with our whole being, that you love us.  Lord, help us to allow your love for us to transform everything.  Jesus we trust in you.  We make this prayer in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. 
AMEN
 
Reflection
God, the Creator of the universe, has fallen deeply in love with you.  Since the beginning of time, God has been completely in love with you.  Throughout history, and through every day of your life, God has been pursuing you and expectantly longing for you to love Him in return.
 
There is nothing we can do to make Him stop loving us.  There is no place we can run that He can’t find us.  There is nothing we can do to earn His love – it is His free, undeserved gift.
 
When in your life have you felt close to God?
 
 
Have there been moments when you’ve had a hard time imagining knowing God, or had a hard time believing God accepts you and loves you?
 
 
Many of us have a hard time believing God could really love us.  We focus on our failures, our brokenness.  The rejection and judgment of others have left us wounded.  We fear that anyone who really knew the things we have done, or thought, would turn us away.  We believe we could not possibly do enough to become worthy of love.  Overwhelmed by our shortcomings, we may be tempted to hide our brokenness, or hide ourselves, in shame.
 
You are dear to God.  God created you in your mother’s womb, fashioned you in His very likeness, and continues to create you every day of your life.
 
No matter where you are right now on your journey, no matter what you may have done or not done in your life, no matter who you are, where you have been or what you have – God is seeking you.  God is loving you deeply and personally – and calling you by name.
 
Reflecting with Tradition:  C.C.C. #218, 220, 221  God is love.
 
The Catechism is the tradition of the Catholic Church.  Below are paragraphs on God is Love.
 
218
In the course of its history, Israel was able to discover that God had only one reason to reveal Himself to them, a single motive for choosing them from among all peoples as His special possession:  His sheer gratuitous love.  And thanks to the prophets, Israel understood that it was again out of love that God never stopped saving them and pardoning their unfaithfulness and sins.
 
220
God’s love is “everlasting”:  “For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but My steadfast love shall not depart from you.”  Through Jeremiah, God declares to His people, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore, I have continued my faithfulness to you.”
 
221
But St. John goes even further when he affirms that “God is love”:  God’s very being is love.  By sending His only Son and the Spirit of Love in the fullness of time, God has revealed His innermost secret:  God Himself is an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and He has destined us to share in that exchange.
 
 
What strikes you from these passages?

 
Return to Psalm 139 from Week 2.   How does the Catechism connect with Psalm 139?

 
Closing Prayer
 
Loving God,
 
I come into Your presence so aware of my human frailty and yet
               overwhelmed by Your love for me.
 
I thank You that there is no human experience that I might walk
               through where Your love cannot reach me.
 
If I climb the highest mountain, You are there and yet, if I find
               myself in the darkest valley of my life, You are there.
 
Teach me today to love You more.
 
Help me to rest in that love that asks nothing more than the
               simple trusting heart of a child.
 
In Jesus’ name,
Amen