Love

By James Donahue

Today, for readers who may have missed it, is Valentine’s Day. It is a day set aside for us to take a few moments to express our love and gratitude to our mates, our friends and lovers, and our neighbors.

Historically the day was established by Pope Gelasius I in 500 AD as a religious observance of the Christian martyr Saint Valentine. It was deleted by Pope Paul VI in 1969 as a Catholic religious observance, obviously because of how the holiday has evolved into something far different than originally intended.

Like all of the American “holidays” Valentine’s Day has been heavily commercialized. Our television screens, e-mails and various other media outlets have been hammering us with suggestions for materializing the day with gifts of flowers, chocolates, teddy bears, jewelry and even cars as our expression of true love.

Because of all the commercial hype, most self-respecting males feel it is their “duty” to rush to the flower shop or some other store and spend hard earned money on something to bring home to the spouse at the end of the day.

When we were kids it was a tradition to give every person in our class at school a valentine. It was possible to buy boxes filled with a large assortment of simple valentine cards that could be folded. There was room for us to write little messages. Teachers provided us with a list of all the children in the class to assure that no one was left out. Of course, there was always some poor unpopular soul in the class that either didn’t get many valentines, or the message inside was not an expression of love. As we got older, Valentine’s Day card sharing became a subtle way of “getting even” or attacking the unpopular children. I came to dread Valentine’s Day and was glad when we reached an age where that practice was no longer imposed on students.

It is sad to say that the way Americans recognize Valentine’s Day has become a cross-section of the way Americans understand love. This powerful emotion appears to be misunderstood, or perhaps completely lost to a large segment of the population. It is thought of as sexual passion or perhaps a deep affection for a mate, family members or close associates. The way many of our elected representatives and the ultra wealthy behave it has become questionable if they are capable of expressing love or compassion for others.

Authors, poets, card writers and journalists have struggled for centuries to accurately describe just what love is. The dictionary describes it as “a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person.” I think we have all experienced this. But does it go deeper?

Religious people say that God is Love. So what do they mean by this? Theologians believe God is the source of love which can be mirrored in human relationships with one another.

A writer for Wikipedia said that “in philosophical context, love is a virtue representing all of human kindness, compassion and affection.” Does our Creator perceive of His creation in this way?

The Apostle Paul in his first letter to the Corinthian Church wrote: Love in patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud, it is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes and always perseveres.”

The ancient Greeks used several different words to describe love. They perceived love as such a complex emotion it could be peeled back like the skins of an onion for various definitions. These words included “agape,” or a pure love shared by two people for each other, and “eros,” or physical and sensual desire.

The Greek philosopher Aristotle added the word “philia” which he described as a loyalty to friends, family and community. He saw it as a love of the mind for the close associates around us. He defined the natural affection between parents and their children as “storge.”

The Greeks even had a fifth and far more subtle level of love which they called “xenia.” This involved a ritualized friendship formed between a host and his guest during times of entertaining people in the home. This involved providing food and quarters for the guest who was expected to repay with his gratitude.

There is even more to love than has been described above. For those separated from the confines of religiously structured belief systems perceive themselves and all things in both the heavens and on earth as a portion of the living Creator of All.

When we look through a high-powered microscope and examine the atoms within the cells we find that there is energy, space and light. This is true not only in what we perceive as “living” cells within our own bodies and in the cells of the plants and animals, but also in the rocks. Thus we reach an understanding that the Earth under our feet is sentient. The aboriginals were right when they perceived her as the Mother Earth. It is with this awareness that spiritual believers consider themselves “all one.” They see themselves as part of the living force that many refer to as the Creator, or God.

If this is true, then each of us possesses a spark of the Creator, and we have the power of love and light implanted in the very cells that compose the bodies we occupy. We also possess the spirit that is uniquely us, and the soul of the creator. With all of these natural tools, why is it then that we have such difficulty understanding love?

The Abba Father in his messages to the world, published here in the spring of 2010, gave specific instructions for everyone to wake up and prepare for a great change that is now occurring on the Earth.

The Abba Father instructed us to “Go within, open every cell, look at the light there. Feel every cell communicating together. Raise the light now like a flame, (with) sparks glowing. Keep this resonance in your head using sparks glowing evermore. Do this quickly. Turn on. Turn on. Lights glowing forever. Keep this momentum, feeling the glow.

 “Continue to turn on the light until you feel the warmth within. Now feel the sparks at your fingertips. They are felt there, tingling. You are now turned on to your light source, never to be turned off. Keep this flowing every day. Raise the light. Raise the frequency. You have begun!”

The entity states that everybody has the ability to turn on this light source, and that no one needs to be excluded. In a second session with Abba Father he restated the description of how to go about getting our bodies prepared:

“Call on every cell in your body to become brighter,” the Abba Father said. “See them all illuminate brighter and brighter. Quickly you will see a change. A mother cell is activated and helps the rest become light. Open your resonance now with all your fears gone. Keep this up until you feel the sparks come to you. This is the way. Sparks will be felt in your fingertips. Then will you know the light is on. Do this every day.

“No one is excluded from this light. All DNA has this source. This DNA is lit up with light but needs activation to do work. Mankind has become dim and is not thinking right. Many want this light to go out. So quickly turn on – turn on. There will be a mind resistance to this procedure but a warning is given to proceed no matter what the circumstance.”

Once the light is on, we are instructed to project it out to everyone around us, reaching out to all the world in light and love. And in case you missed it, the eternal light within us is also an expression of love. Once you do this exercise, you will understand what we mean.

Happy Valentine’s Day 2011.