“All you need is love….” “Love, love changes everything…”
More has been written and sung about love than any other subject. Why? Could it be because it is the most powerful and life changing force known to us? Psychological research shows us that children deprived of an early loving relationship are deeply affected for the rest of their lives. It seems that love feeds our spirits as food nourishes our bodies.
“Love is our life”
So what is love and why is it so vital to a healthy spirit?
Mother Theresa cared for the ‘untouchables’ in Calcutta for most of her life. She identified with their need and always claimed to be doing this work as an expression of God’s love.
The love that lies in the centre of every human soul is from God and according to Swedenborg this ‘Divine Love’ has three characteristic goals:
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to love others
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to have a freely returned relationship with others
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to take delight in another person’s happiness.
The essence of God is pure love and this ‘Divine Love’ is behind God’s act of creation. This love is always true and constant in its purposes. So God is never angry with people, and never rejects or punishes them.
Swedenborg explains that although the Bible attributes anger to God this is an appearance of the truth because in reality the anger resides with those who turn away from God.
We are all aware of feeling different sorts of love in our lives. For example, the love we feel for our partner may be different to the love we feel for our child which is different again from the love we may feel for a friend. 
Each love is defined by its goal or purpose. When any love achieves its purpose joy is experienced e.g. a love of beauty finds joy in a flower or landscape. Some loves however, such as love of material gain for its own sake, bring short term happiness but do not bring lasting joy and contentment to our spirits.
This can be explained through considering the four basic human loves as pictured on the triangle opposite.
To be truly human, either of the top two must rule and the latter two become subservient. So 'Love of God' or 'Love of Others' should be on top, or our first priority. But from experience we know that we are born with a strong tendency to choose one of the latter two to dominate our attitudes and living. Then our priority becomes 'Love of Self before Others' or 'Love of Worldly Pleasures'. When we do this we are turning the true hierarchy of loves upside down and we do not find true joy within our spirits. But get love in the right order and make love the be all and end all of life and our lives and those we touch will be transformed.
“…love one another just as I love you” Jesus in John's Gospel 15:12)
"There is more hunger for love and appreciation in this world than for bread" Mother Teresa
"You will find as you look back upon your life that the moments when you have really lived, are the moments when you have done things in a spirit of love. Henry Drummond
"Love is the master key that opens the gates of happiness" Oliver Wendell Holmes
"Self love means grabbing pleasure from others and gathering it only to yourself. Worldly love is the desire to make another person's possessions your own. Those in the midst of this sort of love may wish to share their own enjoyment with others; but since the focus of that motive is still themselves, they do not increase the enjoyment of others, but instead reduce it." D T Suzuki
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