Love simply must expand, radiating its light and warmth in all directions. The happier we are, the more we want to tell others, to share our happiness with them. God, who is Love itself, also wanted to share goodness with others. God was not forced to share this goodness; God wanted to! God wanted to be our Father, to give us divine life, goodness, and happiness.
The greatest thing God could give us was life—not only human life but a sharing in his own life. This mystery is called grace. Grace affects us at the very roots of our being. We are as new as the day we were first created. Yet the newness is not something added on top of what we already are. It soaks our nature, permeates our being—if we let it. This means that the very power whereby God loves is our power. The very wisdom and intelligence with which God loves is ours. The very giving and going out, the generosity and feeling is all ours, for what is in God is in us, not by some kind of distant imitation but by our participation in God’s own life.
—from the book Live Like Francis: Reflections on Franciscan Life in the World
by Leonard Foley, OFM
