“Love Never Faileth”

There are times that feel like an important transition point, particularly when one year, where trouble seems to be on the horizon, passes and the other begins. It’s not only the transition of the calendar but our social stability that can seem shaky. Recently at these moments it has seemed like things are changing to a time of increasing uncertainty, where a lot of things could go very, very wrong, when the democracy I’d been comfortable taking for granted could falter. As I tried to find some peace with that, I centered into that space of just one breath, then the next, yet the anxiety that bubbled up every once in a while, was still there.

I then remembered something from when, as a child, I was attending Quaker worship in South Yarmouth. There was an elderly woman who, at least once a summer, would give the same message. Year after year, it was simply three words: “Love never faileth” (always with the “TH” at the end). After she passed on, another elderly woman took up the charge. As I got to know Quakers around New England, I discovered that the exact same simple message was repeated in meetinghouses at least once a year throughout the region. “Love never faileth”: this is what can carry us through difficult times. For me, the love that gathers in prayer spaces every Sunday morning sustains the essence of who I am and who we are. It can ground us in deep gratitude for the people in our lives and those messages of love that bubble up throughout the year. This gratitude and message, this truth that love never fails, can carry us through any storm into eternity.. ~rch 12/31/2023