# If I Am Without Love, I Am Nothing
*2008-03-19*

> Bill Young reflects on the meaning of love through a reading of 1 Corinthians 13 and shares a personal prayer that emphasizes love as the greatest Christian virtue.

## Why I Chose This Prayer

I was looking for a daily prayer to share and came across a beautiful hymn to love taken from 1 Corinthians 13:1‑8. It struck me because on down days we often feel unloved, yet the passage reminds us that love begins with us. If we are not patient, kind, or humble, we may be the ones lacking love, not the world around us.

## The Prayer of Love

Through the languages of both human and angelic, I pray:

If I speak without love, I am no more than a clanging cymbal. Though I possess the power of prophecy, the knowledge of mysteries, and the faith to move mountains, if I am without love, I am nothing. Even if I give all I have to the poor, or even sacrifice my body, without love it profits me nothing.

Love is always patient and kind. Love is never jealous, boastful, or conceited. It is never rude and never seeks its own advantage. It does not take offense nor store up grievances. Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but finds its joy in the truth. It is always ready to make allowances, to trust, to hope, and to endure whatever comes.

Love never ends. Prophecies will cease, tongues will fall silent, and knowledge will pass away, but faith, hope, and love remain. Of these three, the greatest is love.

## A Closing Blessing

May the love of God fill you, and may your love for God and for one another grow each day. Amen.

*Without love, all our gifts and virtues are empty.*