Remain in my love. ~John 15:9

Jesus said to his disciples: “As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy might be in you and your joy might be complete.” ~John 15:9-11

Ave Maria! Every now and then I like to type a Scripture verse into Google and then search "Images". When I did that just now with "Remain in my love", the above picture was one of my first finds. It wonderfully depicts today's Gospel, which is so brief that I included it above in its entirety. To remain in the love of Jesus is to keep his commandments, which means to love one another, to serve each other, to lay down our lives for each and all. Only then do we experience true joy, the joy of the Lord, who came not to be served but to serve (Matthew 20:28). Only then is our joy full, perfect, complete -- "good measure and pressed down and shaken together and running over" (Luke 6:38).

Albert Schweitzer, German theologian, musician, philosopher, physician and Nobel Prize-winning humanitarian, once said, "I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve." I believe he got it quite right.

Dear Lord, teach me the joy of remaining in Your love. Amen.

P.S. You can find Dr. Schweitzer's obituary from the New York Times here, an interesting read.  He died in September 1965.  I had just begun my senior year in high school, and while I don't recall reading his obituaries, I did diligently copy his quote about service into my first of many "quote books."