Seeing Through the Eyes of Love: Weekly Summary
Sunday
How do we learn to see and to appreciate through eyes of love?
—Brian McLaren and Carmen Acevedo Butcher
Monday
Love is not only what we do; it’s how we do it. When we stand in the state of love that Jesus offers, we live inside of a different energy.
—Richard Rohr
Tuesday
Self-love is the foundation of our loving practice. Without it our other efforts to love fail.
—bell hooks
Wednesday
There’s nothing passive about love. Love is active, creative, daring, public nonviolence that resists all the forces of death.
—John Dear
Thursday
When we come from gratitude, we become more present to the wonder of being alive in this amazing world, to the many gifts we receive, to the beauty and mystery it offers. Yet the very act of looking at what we love and value in our world brings with it an awareness of the vast violation underway, the despoliation and unraveling.
—Joanna Macy
Friday
I always talk about “cherishing,” because the word “love” sort of gets lost. Cherishing is love with its sleeves rolled up.
—Gregory Boyle
Week Thirty-Eight Practice
Saying “I Love You”
The Learning How to See podcast invites listeners into contemplative practices that strengthen our ability to see through the eyes of love. CAC faculty member Carmen Acevedo Butcher leads this guided meditation:
We’re going to meditate on love in a very personal and contemplative way that takes in all people, all creatures, and remembers how much God loves us….
Look together through the eyes of love and meditate on and with a very common trinity of words: I love you. As contemplatives do, go deeper with these. Wherever you are, let your attention fall now on your breath. Taking slower, deeper breaths than you’ve taken all day so far. Slowly breathing in deeply through your nose and slowly letting it out through your mouth….
Look, as if for the first time, at these three simple words. Let yourself re-see them, asking, what does “I love you” mean to you? How many other ways do you say “I love you” in a day with words? I appreciate you. I see you. I hear you. I’ve got you. I’m proud of you…. Over 1,000 years old, these three English words hold and radiate centuries of beautiful, imperfect, authentic lovers’ experiences….
On the in-breath, hear God, love, or however you name divinity saying, “I love you,” to you. And on the out breath, say back, with all your childlike heart, “I love you” to God or love. Breathing in the beauty of God’s “I love you,” and breathing out your heartfelt “I love you” back.
Whatever comes up while doing this breath prayer—joy, sorrow, fear, grief, anger, gratitude, shame—feel it. Hold it gently, remembering, as Jim Finley says, “Love and love alone has the authority to name who we are,” and then let the feeling go. Breathing in the beauty of God’s “I love you,” that loves us through, and through, and through. Breathing out your heartfelt “I love you” back.
Why do we love each other? The best love tastes of “without a why.” Meister Eckhart called it “sunder warumbe,” … “without a why.” Eyes open to ever-flowing divine grace. We can pause and do this meditation anywhere, any time, to remind us that only love has the authority to name who we are. May you be blessed. We love you.
Listen here to Carmen’s meditation.
Reference:
Adapted from Brian McLaren and Carmen Acevedo Butcher, cohosts, Learning How to See, podcast, season 8, ep. 2, “Learning to See Grace-fully with Nadia Bolz-Weber,” May 8, 2025. Available as MP3 audio download and PDF transcript.
Image credit and inspiration: Sankhadeep Barman, untitled (detail), 2019, photo, Unsplash. Click here to enlarge image. The person lingers in awe, wholly present with the flowers, letting herself be consumed by their quiet beauty, choosing to behold and simply be with them.
