A Quote from Mother Teresa of Calcutta about Love

"Love has a hem to her garment that reaches to the very dust. It sweeps the stains from the streets and lanes, and because it can, it must."

--- Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997, Albanian born, founder of the Missionaries of Charity - worked among the poorest of the poor in India)

I came across this quote recently from Mother Teresa of Calcutta and the power of it took my breath away. This is love that is overflowing, it's effects are incidental to its existence. Love is described here in human form, in fact in feminine form and with a feminine pronoun. Love cannot be contained -- it radiates, and it is purely gratuitous and forgiving of everything. Like the sun, because it can shine, it must.

Which reminds me of a quote from Pope Benedict XVI's recent encyclical, Deus Caritas Est, in which he describes God's love for us:

We have seen that God's eros for man is also totally agape. This is not only because it is bestowed in a completely gratuitous manner, without any previous merit, but also because it is love which forgives.