{"id":24724,"date":"2009-06-15T18:15:40","date_gmt":"2009-06-15T22:15:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2009\/06\/charity-is-the-most-important\/"},"modified":"2009-06-15T18:15:40","modified_gmt":"2009-06-15T22:15:40","slug":"charity-is-the-most-important","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2009\/06\/charity-is-the-most-important\/","title":{"rendered":"Charity is the most important gift"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!--StartFragment--><span style=\"font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Garamond;\nmso-ansi-language:EN-US\"><span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\" style=\"display: inline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/Rouault%20head%20of%20Christ.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Rouault head of Christ.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/Rouault head of Christ-thumb-309x405.jpg\" width=\"309\" height=\"405\" class=\"mt-image-right\" style=\"float: right; margin: 0 0 20px 20px;\" \/><\/a><\/span>&#8216;God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God,<br \/>\nand God abides in him&#8217; (1 Jn 4:16). <span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"text-decoration: underline; \">God has poured out his love in our hearts<br \/>\nthrough the Holy Spirit<\/span> who has been given to us (cf. Rom 5:5); therefore t<span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">he<br \/>\nfirst and most necessary gift is charity<\/span>, by which we love God above all things<br \/>\nand our neighbor because of him. But if charity is to grow and fructify in the<br \/>\nsoul like a good seed, each of the faithful must willingly hear the word of God<br \/>\nand carry out his will with deeds, with the help of his grace; he <span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">must<br \/>\nfrequently partake of the sacraments, chiefly the Eucharist, and take part in<br \/>\nthe liturgy<\/span>; he must constantly apply himself to prayer, self-denial, active<br \/>\nbrotherly service and the practice of all virtues. This is because love, as the<br \/>\nbond of perfection and fullness of the law (cf. Col 3:14; Rom 13:10),<br \/>\ngoverns, gives meaning to, and perfects all the means of sanctification. Hence the true disciple of Christ is marked by love both of God and of his<br \/>\nneighbor. (<i>Lumen Gentium<\/i>, 42)<\/span><!--EndFragment--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8216;God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him&#8217; (1 Jn 4:16). God has poured out his love in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (cf. Rom 5:5); therefore the first and most necessary gift is charity, by which we love &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2009\/06\/charity-is-the-most-important\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Charity is the most important gift<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[2097,32090],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24724"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24724\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}