By Kimberly Newman
Executive Administrative Assistant
Office of the Provost
I love you. I love you. I love you more. I love you the
most and more. I loved you longer. My son Zachary and I exchange
these words often. Either of us can start it and it always is the same. Recently
on my Moment by Moment Retreat we reflected on this passage from S. Kierkegaard:
"You have loved us first, O God. Alas, we speak of it in terms of
history, as if you only loved us first but a single time, rather than without
ceasing you have loved us first many times, and every day, and our whole
life through. When we wake up in the morning and turn our soul to you.,.
You are there first. You have loved us first; if I rise at dawn and
at the same time turn my soul towards you in prayer, You are there ahead
of me; You have loved me first. When I withdraw from the distractions of
the day and turn my soul in thought to You, You are there first and thus
forever. And yet we always speak ungratefully as if You have loved us first
only once."
If this is so, then, regardless of what material things Valentine’s
Day brings, none compares to the blessing of God’s love. It is
like the love of a parent to a child which should always be, unconditional
and unceasing, with no beginning and no end.
