July 21

Love is a manifestation of the divine essence for which time does not exist, and therefore love manifests only in the present, now, at every present moment.

1

To love in general means to do good. This is how we all understand love, and we cannot understand it any other way.

And love is not just a word, it is action, directed towards the good of others.

If a person decides that it is better for him to refrain from the demands of a smallest love in the present for the sake of a future manifestation of a bigger love, then he is deceiving either himself or others, and he loves no one but himself.

Love does not exist in the future; love is only action in the present. A person who does not show love in the present has no love.

2

Let us not delay in being just, compassionate and attentive towards those whom we love; let us not wait until they are either struck by an illness or threatened with death. Life is short, and there can never be too much time to make the hearts of our companions on this short journey happy. Let us hurry to be kind.

— Amiel

3

Hide from the unfortunate person whom you are helping, let him enjoy your charity without knowing the name of his benefactor.

— From “Devout Thoughts”

4

Help the poor without trying to find out the reasons for their poverty so as to not discover something that might make you reluctant to help.

— From “Devout Thoughts”

5

Be good, even if the world condemns you. This is better than being praised for continuing to be bad.

— Lodi

6

The teaching of the gospel contains a simple faith, namely, the faith in and worship of God, or, and this is the same thing, obedience to his law. The whole of his law consists in only one thing: to love one’s neighbor. To love one’s neighbor as yourself means to obey the law and be happy in the fulfillment of the law or, vice versa, to despise and hate your neighbor means to fall into resentment and obstinacy.

— Spinoza

7

There are two kinds of love.

The first is that I simply love other people, without any love for the universal spiritual source in everyone.

The second is that I only love one thing in everyone: the universal spiritual source.

The difference between the former and the latter love consists in the fact that in the former case I will only love people as long as I find them pleasant.

In the latter case, however, when I love the essence in people, which they all share, I will love people even when I find them unpleasant.

In the former case we keep changing the objects of our love, changing our wives, friends, husbands, etc., since the people whom we love are always changing, and consequently our feelings towards them are also changing.

In the latter case, the more we develop morally, the more we grow to love the divine spiritual source, which we begin to perceive ever clearer in everyone.

— Fyodor Strakhov

It is painful to recall how you could have done a charitable deed but did not, how you have irreparably and forever deprived a person of the help he expected from you, and deprived yourself of the joyful consciousness of fulfilling your duty.