Saint John Cassian (around 360-435)
founder of monasteries
Conferences, no. 10,7 ; PL 49, 827 (©Ancient Christian writers, no.57)
"That the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them"
Our Savior prayed to his Father on his disciples' behalf : "That the love with which you have loved me may be them, and they in us." And again: "That all may be one, as you Father in me and I in you, that they also may be one in us." Then that perfect love of God, by which "he loved us first," (1Jn 4:10) will have passed into our heart's disposition upon the fulfillment of this prayer of the Lord...
This will be the case when every love, every desire, effort, every undertaking, every thought of ours, everything that we live, that we speak, that we breathe, will be God, and when that unity which the Father now has with the Son and which the Son has with the Father will be carried over into our understanding and our mind, so that, just as he loves us with a sincere and pure and indissoluble love, we too may be joined to him with a perpetual and inseparable love and so united with him that whatever we breathe, whatever we understand, whatever we speak, may be God. In him we shall attain, I say, to that end... which the Lord longed to be fulfilled in us when he prayed: "That all may be one as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they themselves may also be made perfect in unity." And again: "Father, I wish that those whom you have given me may also be with me where I am."
"This, then, is the goal of the solitary, and this must be his whole intention: to deserve to possess the image of future blessedness in this body and as it were to begin to taste the pledge of that heavenly way of life and glory...
Daily Marriage Tip for June 6, 2019:
Every evening, talk about three favorite memories from your marriage. Consider making a scrapbook of these memories for your anniversary this year.