            <div id="father_cummings_title">Father Cummings Homilies</div>
            <div id="father_cummings_excerpts">Excerpts</div><br/><br/>
            <div id="father_cummings_homily_title">This Tremendous Lover</div>  

            <div class="frcummings_content_paragraph">
                <p>This passage 
                    from this letter of St. Paul's is surely one of the more striking, more 
                    beautiful expressions of Paul's tremendous love, making it very clear 
                    that this new Christian should be treated with great dignity. What tremendous 
                    love for this person that everyone else in society was treating as a slave. 
                    It's easy to see that St. Paul is calling himself here an ambassador of 
                    Christ. This makes us think that he is showing us how God loves us. In 
                    another place he says, <i>'Imitate me, as I imitate Christ.' </i></p>
                  <p>So God's 
                    love for us is just exactly like this, totally unexpected, undeserved 
                    love of someone free for someone who is a slave. This is our relationship 
                    with God, and it's important to remember it when we pray. Our prayer should 
                    be nothing but this relationship of love for Someone that we have no reason 
                    to deserve that He should love us. So this is what should make prayer 
                    such a beautiful experience. It's always strange to me to hear people 
                    say they forgot their prayers, as if it was some monotonous, boring duty. 
                    It mustn't be that way. This should be your favorite time of day when 
                    you get to spend quality time with this Great Lover, who we have no reason 
                    to expect to love us but He does. This is the Son of Man who will light 
                    up the sky at His coming, yet chose to suffer and die for us. So to spend 
                    some time with Him in intimate communion is our greatest privilege and 
                    something we should look forward to every single day and of course give 
                    a good chunk of our day to. </p>
                  <p>St. Gertrude 
                    wrote great words about the love of God, "Ah, wake up O soul, how long 
                    will you sleep? Hear the words I announce to you. Above the heavens there 
                    is a King who is held by desire for you, He loves you with His whole heart 
                    and He loves beyond measure. He Himself loves you so mercifully, and He 
                    Himself cherishes you so faithfully that for your sake He humbly gave 
                    up His kingdom. Seeking you, He endured being seized as a thief. He loves 
                    you so heartily, cherishes you so vigorously and jealously, envelopes 
                    you so powerfully, that for you He cheerfully surrendered His flower-like 
                    body to death. This is He, who washed you with His blood, who through 
                    His death set you free. How long will He wait for you to love Him in return?" 
                    </p>
    
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