The more this generous spirit springs up in your heart, the nearer and dearer will you be to Jesus. Love for Love. Blood for Blood. Life for Life. Will you give Him all?

COMMENT: God has given us everything we have. The saints were profoundly grateful people – they knew the debt they owed to God. But more than this, they repaid that debt through their love, through their action, and, in some cases (including Fr Doyle himself), they repaid this debt with their own blood and their own lives.

St Therese and St Josemaria Escriva both made their own the famous phrase of St John of the Cross: “Love is repaid with love alone”. St Ignatius of Loyola tells us that love is more than nice feelings, rather, as he says:

Love is shown in deeds more than in words.

God has given us everything. While we can never really do enough to repay that debt, it seems very possible that we can end up doing far too little to repay it…

St John of the Cross: “Love is repaid by love alone”.