The distinctive characteristic of perfect love is that it attributes nothing to itself, appropriates nothing for itself, but it sends everything back to the Beloved. If it is like this in human love, what would it be like in the love of God, there, where it is supremely righteous to act in this way?St John of the Crossin 15 Days of prayer with Saint John of the Cross, BY Constant Tonnelier (New City Press, 2012) O Lord our God, let the shelter of your wings give us hope. Protect us. Carry us. You will carry us from when we are little until our hairs grow grey. When our strength is from you, we are strong. When our strength is our own, we are weak. Life with you is the good life indeed. When we live apart from you, our life is a twisted life. Let us come home to you, Lord, lest we be lost.