December15

The Lord and the Neighbor: Top Priorities in Life

And suddenly there was◦ with◦ the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, Glory in the highest to God, and on earth peace, good··will among men. (Luke 2:13-14)

[Some spirits] said that heavenly joy consists solely in praising and glorifying the Lord, being a life destitute of any doing of the goods of charity, and that this is an active life. But they were told that praising and celebrating the Lord is not such an active life as is meant, but is an effect of that life; for the Lord has no need of praises, but wills that they should do the goods of charity, and that it is according to these that they will receive happiness from the Lord. But still these best instructed persons could form no idea of joy, but of servitude, in doing these goods of charity. But the angels testified that such a life is the freest of all, and that it is conjoined with happiness unutterable. (Arcana Coelestia 456)

Spiritual power is to will the good of another, and to will to convey to another as far as possible what is with oneself. (Apocalypse Explained 79)

Heaven does not consist in a desire to be least for the purpose of being greatest, for that would be aspiring and longing to be the greatest; but it consists in desiring from the heart the good of others more than one’s own, and in serving others with a view to their happiness, not with recompense as an end, but from love. (Heaven and Hell 408)

Nothing is more pleasing to one who loves anyone, and who believes anyone, than to will and do what the other wills and thinks, for it is his sole desire to know his will and thought, thus his good pleasure. (Arcana Coelestia 10143.5)

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