Our Father's Love:

God is Love

Also See: God (Topic Page)

"God is love" (John 4:16)

Also See: Love (Topical Scripture)

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God Loves All Things

Also See: God (Topic Page)

"Thou lovest all things that are, and hatest none of the things which Thou hast made." (Wisdom 11:24)

Also See: Love (Topical Scripture)

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God's Love & Crosses

Also See: God (Topic Page)

"He sends us crosses, not because he wishes evil to us, but because he desires our welfare, and because he knows that they are conducive to our salvation." (St. Alphonsus Liguori, Doctor of the Church)

"The cross is a sure sign that he loves you." (St. Louis de Montfort)

"[O God] may you be praised for every struggle, for every suffering, as well as for every joy you send us, because both pain and joy come from your Father's heart. Both are for our salvation." (Bl. Pauline von Mallinckrodt)

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God's Love & Kindness

Also See: God (Topic Page)

"You are God, you are Father, you are Spirit, and you are also love. Never, never will I tire of calling you with this name of love." (St. Maria Maddalena de' Pazzi)

"The gratuitous love of God is the answer to all questions." (Pope John Paul II)

"He holds them all, even those who are weak and ailing, in His most loving Heart." (Pope Pius XII, "Mystici Corporis Christi", 1943)

"I love God, I am loved by God" (St. Ignatius of Loyola)

"[T]o the mind of [St.] Augustine the history of human society is nothing else than a portrayal of the uninterrupted outpouring of God's love upon us." (Pope Pius XI, "Ad Salutem", 1930)

"When God sees us coming to him in prayer, he leans his Heart down very low to his little creature, like a father who bends down to listen to his child when it speaks to him." (St. John Vianney)

"Adore the infinite charity of God, who deigns to save men, notwithstanding their unworthiness and ingratitude." (St. Ignatius Loyola)

"He loves, He hopes, He waits. Our Lord prefers to wait Himself for the sinner for years rather than to keep us waiting an instant." (St. Maria Goretti)

"We must marvel at the love of the Father who, in order to ransom a slave, sacrificed his Son"

"How wondrously considerate of us is God's pity! How priceless a love of charity which would sacrifice a Son to redeem a slave!" (Pope Gregory IX, Mira Circa Nos, 1228)

"God's love for us is freely given and unearned, surpassing all we could ever hope for or imagine. His love for us does not depend on whether we have merited or are worthy of it." (Pope John Paul II)

"God loves each of us as if there were only one of us." (St. Augustine, Doctor of the Church)

"God is love, St. John affirms (1 Jn. 4:8). Everything that exists is a reflection of the free love of God, and therefore every creature expresses in some way its infinite splendor." (Pope John Paul II)

"So great is the impetus of the river of God's goodness overflowing on mankind, that only the free will of man, which He has given to him in order to receive its benefits, can raise a dam against it; and whenever, through this free will, man resists the influence and force of the divine Goodness, he (according to thy mode of understanding), violates and grieves this immense love to its very essence. But if creatures would place no obstacle and permit its operations, the whole soul would be inundated and satiated with participation in its divine essence and attributes." (Ven. Mary of Agreda)

"We will call God our charity, not only because we receive it from the Lord, and because He communicates it to us, but because He himself is essential charity, and the overflow of this divine perfection, which we represent to ourselves as a form and attribute of his Divinity, redounds in our souls, transforming it more perfectly and abundantly than any other virtue." (Ven. Mary of Agreda)

"For I know that my God is not merely bounteous Bestower of my life, the generous Provider for all my needs, the pitiful Consoler of all my sorrows, the wise Guide of my course: but that he is far more than that. He saves me with an abundant deliverance: he is my eternal Preserver, the portion of my inheritance, my glory." (St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Doctor of the Church)

"O my God, Thy people know Thee not! Oh, if they only knew Thee, Thou wouldst be loved still more. If they knew Thy Wisdom, Thy omnipotence, Thy goodness, Thy beauty, and all Thy divine attributes, all Thy people would be as the seraphim, afire with divine love." (St. Anthony Mary Claret)

"Even though all human hearts were inflamed with the burning love of the Seraphim and were to beat with love for God until the End of Time, what would He gain thereby? His happiness and perfection are and remain infinite; they can be neither augmented nor lessened, neither creatures honor or dishonor, love or hate Him. Thus, God's love for man is the purest, the most disinterested love, a love excluding all selfishness and all self-interest. Jesus has indeed given to men unspeakable proofs of His love, but what does He receive in return? Alas, from the greater number, only ingratitude; from a few, a true, sincere love!" (Fr. Etlin)

"For God is easily appeased, and desires to aid men, having promised openly to give His grace in abundance to those who ask for it. Nay, He even invites men to ask, and almost insists with most loving words: 'I say unto you, ask and it shall be given you: seek, and you shall find: knock, and it shall be opened to you.' And that we should have no fear in doing this with confidence and familiarity, he softens His words, comparing Himself to a most loving father who desires nothing so much as the love of his children. 'If you then being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children: how much more will your Father who is in heaven, give good things to them that ask Him?'" (Pope Leo XIII, "Exeunte Iam Anno", 1888)

"Nor should it be omitted that God has preeminently displayed His clemency and the riches of His goodness in this, that while He might have forced us to serve His glory without a reward, He has, notwithstanding, deigned to identify His own glory with our advantage, thus rendering what tends to His honor, conducive to our interests." (Catechism of the Council of Trent)

"How great is the Lord's indulgence! How great is His condescension and abundant goodness toward us. Think of it: He has willed that we call Him Father when we come before Him to pray, and to call ourselves sons of God, even as Christ is the Son of God - a name that none of us would dare to use in prayer unless He Himself had allowed us to pray in that way!" (St. Cyprian of Carthage)

"At the very moment Mary consented to become the Mother of God, several miraculous events took place. The Holy Spirit formed from the most pure blood of Mary's heart a little body which he fashioned into a perfect living being: God created the most perfect soul that ever could be created. Eternal Wisdom, the Son of God, drew the body and soul into union with that person. Here we have the great wonder of heaven and earth, the prodigious excess of the love of God" (St. Louis de Montfort)

"A lover is placed outside himself, and made to pass into the object of his love, inasmuch as he wills good to the beloved; and works for that good by his providence even as he works for his own. Hence Dionysius says (De Divinis Nominibus iv,1): 'On behalf of the truth we must make bold to say even this, that He Himself, the cause of all things, by His abounding love and goodness, is placed outside Himself by His providence for all existing things.'" (St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church and "greatest theologian in the history of the Church")

"By reason of this redemption we have received the Holy Ghost and have been made worthy of the grace of God. As a consequence of this gift we are the adopted sons of God, as the Apostle Paul wrote to the Romans when he said: Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again in fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption of sons, whereby we cry: 'Abba, Father.' The force and efficacy of this adoption are thus set forth by St. John: Behold what manner of charity the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called, and should be the sons of God." (Catechism of the Council of Trent)

"He sent the very Designer and Creator of the universe Himself, through whom He has made the heavens… But did He send Him, as one might suppose, in despotism and fear and terror? Not so. Rather, in gentleness and meekness He sent Him, as a king sending a son. He sent Him as King, He sent Him as God, He sent Him to men. He sent Him for saving and persuading, but not for compelling. Compulsion, you see, is not an attribute of God." (Letter to Diogenetus, circa 2nd century A.D.)

"How much You have loved us, good Father, You that spared not Your only Son, but delivered Him up for the sake of impious men! How You loved us! For us, he decided not to cling to His equality with You, but was made obedient even to death on the cross" (St. Augustine, Doctor of the Church, circa 400 A.D.)

"God loves us, such as we shall be by His gift, not such as we are by our own merit" (St. Prosper)

"God loves us so tenderly, that he not only desires, but is solicitous about our welfare... Let us, then always throw ourselves into the hands of God, who so ardently desires and so anxiously watches of our eternal salvation. 'Casting all our care upon him; for he hath care of you" (1 Pt. 5:7). He who, during life, casts himself into the hands of God, shall lead a happy life and shall die a holy death." (St. Alphonsus Liguori, Doctor of the Church)

"But perhaps none of the holy prophets has expressed and revealed as clearly and vividly as Osee the love with which God always watches over His people. In writings of this prophet, who is outstanding among the minor prophets for the sublimity of his concise language, God declares that His love for the chosen people, combining justice and a holy anxiety, is like the love of a merciful and loving father or of a husband whose honor is offended. This love is not diminished or withdrawn in the face of the perfidy or the horrible crimes of those who betray it. If it inflicts just chastisements on the guilty, it is not for the purpose of rejecting them or of abandoning them to themselves; but rather to bring about the repentance and the purification of the unfaithful spouse and ungrateful children, and to bind them once more to itself with renewed and yet stronger bonds of love. 'Because Israel was a child, and I loved him; and I called my son out of Egypt...And I was like a foster father to Ephraim, and I carried them in my arms, and they knew not that I healed them. I will draw them with the cords of Adam, with the bonds of love...I will heal their wounds, I will love them; for My wrath is turned away from them. I will be as a dew, Israel shall spring up as a lily, and his root shall shoot forth as that of Libanus.'" (Pope Pius XII, "Haurietis Aquas", 1956)

Also See: God's Love / Jesus Christ | Love (Topical Scripture)

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God's Love is Enduring

Also See: God (Topic Page)

"...the love of God can be exhausted by no human iniquity" (Catechism of the Council of Trent)

"Though from the time of our first parents and from the moment of our first sin down to this very day we have offended Him by countless sins and crimes, yet He still retains His love for us and never renounces His singular solicitude for our welfare." (Catechism of the Council of Trent)

"The waters of the most bitter afflictions cannot quench the fire of his charity toward us, so ardent is it. Even the persecutions of his enemies were not powerful enough to vanquish the incomparable solidity and constancy of the love with which he loved us. Such ought to be our love for the neighbor: firm, ardent, solid, and persevering." (St. Francis de Sales, Doctor of the Church)

"His love never knows rest." (St. Peter Julian Eymard)

"There's nothing that can stop God's love for you."

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How Much God Loves Us

Also See: God (Topic Page)

"God loves us more than the best of fathers and more tenderly than the most devoted of mothers." (St. John Vianney)

"There is no creature made who can realize how much, how sweetly, and how tenderly our Maker loves us." {"Blessed" Julian of Norwich}

"Among men there is no love more ardent, no greater or more intimate tie, than that of those who are united by marriage. Hence when God frequently compares Himself to a spouse or husband and calls Himself a jealous God, He shows the excess of His love towards us." (Catechism of the Council of Trent)

"God's love of man is such that to those for whom first He is the Creator, He afterwards, according to grace, becomes a Father also. The later He does when men, who are His creatures, receive into their hearts, as the Apostle says, the Spirit of His Son, crying 'Abba, Father.' It is these who, by their having received the Word, have gained from Him the power to become the children of God" (St. Athanasius, Doctor of the Church, 4th century A.D.)

"God loves us more than we love ourselves... God truly loves us more than anyone else on earth can or does."

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When God's Love For Us Began

Also See: God (Topic Page)

"When did God's love for you begin? When He began to be God. When did He begin to be God? Never, for He has always been without beginning and without end, and so He has always loved you from eternity." (St. Francis de Sales, Doctor of the Church)

"Before you had a being, God loved you. Before your father or mother was born, God loved you: yes, even before the creation of the world, he loved you. And how long before the creation has God loved you? Perhaps for a thousand years, or for a thousand ages. It is needless to count years or ages; God loved you from eternity." (St. Alphonsus Liguori, Doctor of the Church)

"Your love for me was already there, even when I had no existence, and precisely because you loved me, O good God, you called me from nothingness to existence!" (St. Maximilian Kolbe)

"He loved us personally...centuries before we were born" (St. Peter Julian Eymard)

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