Ordo Amoris

St. Augustine defined virtue as ordo armoris, the ordinate condition of the affections in which every object is accorded that kind and degree of love which is appropriate to it.

Appropriate affection. I've been meditating on that sentence for a few days now and I keep coming back to one though...I keep wrestling with it like Jacob wrestled with God and I'm afraid I might have the same outcome that he did...I've got a limp.

The problem I'm having is trying to wrap my mind around what the "kind and degree of love" should be that I have toward God, my Creator, who sent His son to die for me. It's not possible. There is nothing I can offer, nothing I can say or do...and yet, He loves me with everything He is. This doesn't ignite in me some unending apathy. Quite the contrary, it makes me want to give Him everything I have. It's an understanding of what John Piper would call "faith in future grace".

My God, thank You.

peace,
glo