Love is a common theme in the first letter of John. It explains God’s love as having been initiated by him. It is our responsibility to respond to his love. God never changes - his very being is love. Indeed, if we let God’s love permeate our lives, it will be transformative.
As we hear this exhortation about God’s love, we celebrate an American saint today: St John Neumann. He was born in what was called Bohemia, which is now the Czech Republic. He came to New York at 25 years old in the early 1800s and was ordained a priest. He joined the Redemptorists, becoming the first Redemptorist priest to take vows in the United States. He did most of his missionary work in the United States with the growing German population in this country. He became Bishop of Philadelphia, forming the Catholic schools there into a diocesan school system - it was the first diocesan Catholic school system in the United States. Neumann was popular for his preaching and spiritual writings. He died in 1860 at the age of 48 and was canonized a saint in 1977. I will end with one one St John Neumann’s wonderful quotes: “As Christ has his work, we too have ours. As he rejoiced to do his work, we must rejoice in ours also.”
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