On April 1st my dad posted on his blog about the apostle Paul's famous writings on lurv. I wanted to re-read the passage, and decided to share.
But if you're feeling too worn out by life to get through the long-winded writing of Paul, then sit back and let Alicia Keys sing to you instead. Cause she knows what you're going through.
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.
Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.
When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became an adult, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.
And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
If you made a Best Parts version of the Bible (à la Princess Bride) this would definitely make the cut.
I hope your spring-a-tude weekend contains...
A little faith: in yourself, in your fave show to cheer you up, in anything!
A little hope: Emily Dickinson says it never dies.
And a little love: if not, I sends you some in the form of my step-mother with her dear departed lovebird, Agape.
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That was 1 Corinthians 13. I chose the New King James, for the sheer poetry of it, though I changed "man" to "adult." To see other versions, or the context, check out this handy site.
But don't get a parrot! As my parents learned after getting parrots, selling them should be absolutely banned. It's a horrid industry and birds need to live in flocks. My parents put hours of work into caring for their two remaining birds, and they support this rescue which has to care for all the beautiful sick creatures that people discovered were too hard to care for after they bought them. >:-(
8 comments:
Hope
Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all,
And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.
I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.
- Emily Dickenson
I linked to it at one point, and then in rewriting didn't relink it. Funny that I didn't make the connection to the feathers and little Agape! :-) But my subconscious did!
Flashback to the English variety show.
Did I perform that? Or with someone else? With my pink bird?
I'm not a major fan of Paul. (The saint or the beatle). No offense to the lovely passage to quoted.
I'm more of a Sonnet #29 (shakespeare) girl myself.
Yes, well, he (the saint) is known for being sexist, though I did have a minister eons ago give a whole sermon about how he was actually something of a feminist for his day. But I have no idea if that's true.
As for the Beatle... I like "Live and Let Die."
Sonnet 29 - thumbs up :-)
I'm with Lora on this one- Shakespeare sure knew how to write about love. Also the sonnets by Elizabeth Barrett Browning are just wonderful. Great post!
I know more Robert Browning than Elizabeth. But I somehow came to her sonnet number 1 and it's - gasp - breathtaking. Do you have any other specific favorites?
I'll have to have poetry day à la Lora!
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