Love causes us to go out of ourselves and live in those we love

"God is at the deep centre of all things, and when we find him there we find eternal life. Every creature gifted with reason has received light to see in all reacted things both their own individual beauty and that of the Supreme Being, from whom they have received their being, and who sustains them in it. With the light given us we should see God in all things. Our gaze should pass beyond the shadows of created things in order that it may rest in the true Light hidden in beings without reason, but discovered by those who have reason. And with this Being we should make ourselves in harmony.

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All material things are a source of beauty and enrichment. It is not their fault that we do not profit by them more. The fault is ours entirely, in that we have not the courage to break the husk and seek the fruit.

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It is a law of life that we are slowly transformed by those with whom we are brought into contact. Love makes like. Love causes us to go out of ourselves and live in those we love. It moves us to make their thoughts and feelings our own, to share in their lives, and so become one with them. Thus admiration invites imitation. Almost irresistibly we feel impelled to imitate all that appears to us good and beautiful; we set it up as a model that we would copy.

Religion is such a contact. It creates ties which bind God and the believer. If our god is matter, we become material; if it is something beneath us, we are lowered. Union is only possible when two beings approach and meet on a common level."

-- Where Silence is Praise by A Carthusian