We are to become vessels of God’s compassionate love for others. St. Claire of Assis

It’s easy to think of “vessel” statically, i.e., a container.  However, when one considers the term “blood vessel”, its meaning “vessel’ shifts towards that of a conduit: when the blood stops flowing, the body is dead.

Saint Claire `understood that love has its source in the Mystery of God whose nature it is to love without any caveats. In our humanity we lack that capacity, and so we need to continuously tap into the never-ending flow of eternal love. Just as a blockage in a blood vessel can lead to a heart attack, so it is with the dynamic and fresh flow of the one Divine Love. We all have our ways of blocking that flow and need humility to open ourselves to the currents of grace in which we live.

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Love is the only thing that can fill hearts and make them overflow. St. Mother Teresa of Kolkata

 In Psalm 23, we read “My cup overflows” [with the anointing of God’s love].  God is not stingy in sharing his love; in effect giving us more than we could possibly use. We humans, however, can be stingy in meting out of love.

St. Teresa’s words acknowledge that though our hearts may be of limited capacity, the outpouring of God’s love overcomes any limitations we have. It ultimately has to do with opting to be open to the currents of loving grace that are always available.

In John 12-3 we read Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil made from costly aromatic nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair; the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil”. It is a beautiful example of the extravagance of love. Though the act of love was focused on Jesus, the perfume spread. Like ripples in a pond after a rock has been dropped, the impact of love is boundless.