from: The Cistercian Alternative

Today's post is a very brief one:

I am reading a translation of The Cistercian Alternative by Dom Andre Louf. I came across a passage that made me stop and ponder just what was being wrtten. It is in the section about spiritual friendship on page 128.

Paraphrasing the well-known saying of St.John, the great English Cistercian Aelred of Rievaulx dared to write: "God is friendship and he who lives in friendship lives in God and God lives in him"(cf. 1 John 4:16). Aelred knew how a friend becomes the sacrament the reveals the love of Jesus. [Louf, Gll & MacMillian 1983]

The bolding of the last sentence is mine. I read that sentence over and over. I actually put the book down. At this point in my life I have one spiritual friend. I had never thought of him as a sacrament before..., but I will from now on.