Why wash another dish when we have already washed so many? Why surrender these, our precious moments, so well deserved and so much our own?

We may have no money, nor any of the treasures it can buy, but peace and rest and time: can we not preserve our little private stock of these, our personal reserve after giving up all the rest?

How much should we give? What is the proper measure? When is the neighbor trespassing upon our sacred rights?

We must remove all such questions from our hearts, for they have no answers. As St. Bernard put it, “The measure of love is to be measureless.”

The gift of self must be a gift of love. Does love ever ask, “How much shall I give?” Love gives all, without calculation or thought. So if you give, and measure your gift, you are not giving out of love.

Accounting is not a science of the soul. Comparison-shopping does not belong in the heart. And as for possessiveness, it is a virtue in heaven only, for there we possess all.

But oh the pain of those last dishes, of the loss of those precious moments! Perhaps it is these things that hold the secret of holiness.

Reprinted with permission from Alleluia Press, Allendale, New Jersey, 07401.