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The Enabling Power of Love - Real love is a movement from one heart to another.
Friday, June 12, was a day when many Catholics celebrated a Feast that identifies the Heart of Jesus as a powerful force of love that invites, supports, and encourages those who accept it. The Saturday following that celebration looks at Mary, the mother of Jesus, and ponders gratefully how the love of the woman who bore Jesus into and for the world enables us to relate with her son but in no way seeks to coerce, force, or control our responses. We see such loving behavior in women whose love is recognized by those who witness it as empowering others but not seeking any good other than that of those whom they love.
We all need to be loved like this, for we know, again intuitively rather than by deeply thinking about it, that any expression of love that is true and sincere is never in any way manipulative, and frees us to believe in ourselves and to trust in others, including God. The Heart of Jesus and the Heart of Mary are unified in seeking our acceptance of this love which will enable us to become more responsive to God and more freely caring for all whom God loves. Jesus loves us as we are, and so does his mother, who treasures all those for whose sake God chose to become one of us.
The experience of those who let themselves be loved in this way, who consciously accept the open-hearted gift, is that of being empowered to live more genuinely as the good people we aspire to be. It is a much more effective way of becoming our better selves by acknowledging this love offered to us than to strive through our own efforts to grow in care and concern for people, the environment, and every other human endeavor that we might hold as desirable.
Love is not a thing, but a choice that essentially arises in the hearts of people. We know how significant it is for us when another person loves us, for we cannot make it happen but are always changed for the better because of it. Love is a gift that is profoundly transformative because its ultimate source is in the heart of God who guides all who respond to love by choosing to love, thereby fulfilling their purpose in life and finally entering union with God and all who love God.
There are no limits to the enabling power of love.
Last Updated 6/13/2026