Love is not a feeling

The priest who preached the sermon at high Mass this morning said--as a parenthetical to the story of the conversion of Cyprian and the martyrdom of Cyprian and Justina--something he's said a number of times over the last couple of years, and something that certainly isn't a novel thought (as the Angelic Doctor would observe were he here), but it's worthy of repeating anyways because it's Truth which, if generally understood and accepted, would probably reduce the great Western malaise by half:

Love is not a feeling. Love is an act of the will.

Funny, growing up in my goofy Texas diocese, I didn't hear stuff like that said in sermons at all. It could be that I wasn't listening, but it was more likely that powerful, unambiguous stuff like that wasn't being said.

--Curmudgeon

PS. It may seem to you that this is simply a "placeholder" post, one which I threw onto the blog just to have something new, because I lacked the time or motivation to do a more substantive post in which I respond to several loose ends raised by Todd or by Jeff (and now somewhat stale--they may erroneously think I've thrown in the towel), or I continue the thought on what it means to be "conservative" versus being what most people understand to be a "traditionalist" or a reactionary. If that's what you think is happening, congratulations! You're very perceptive. Not to take away from the great principle of which I was reminded today, but too much real reality is getting in the way of my virtual reality this weekend. Regards, C.