Love And Do What You Will

Prayer of Saint Augustine

Therefore once for all this short command is given to you:

"Love and do what you will."

If you keep silent, keep silent by love;

if you speak, speak by love; 

if you correct, correct by love;

if you pardon, pardon by love;

let love be rooted in you,

and from the root nothing but good can grow.

Last weekend, my team and the two other Houston Mission Year teams headed out to the woods for a three day solitude retreat to reflect, pray, meditate, and culminate the end of our six week technology fast. 

We prayed together and on our own, read our team covenants out loud to one another to symbolize our commitment to one another and to the ideals we've set out to live by, and sat at the feet of our elders listening to their wisdom. 

We also took some time to enjoy one another. 

 
We are continuing to learn to love, really love. To love when the dishes in the sink pile up, to love when our work styles collide, to love when it's too cold or too hot in the house, to love when we've had a bad day, to love when someone is sick in bed with the flu, to love when the house is completely full of noise, to love when the house is completely silent, to love when we think everyone else around us has gone crazy and we're the only sane ones left...

Love. Still trying to figure out how to do it right.