This dynamic growth of faith and love cannot be plotted or set out step by step. It is a life journey fuelled by grace, with us, in an effort-filled way, co-operating and consenting to God's presence in our lives by consciously letting go of those aspects of ourselves that obstruct and resist the free flow of grace. This recursively linked spiral of growth is facilitated and enhanced by a loving attitude towards ourselves. It is indeed an indispensable aspect of the spiritual journey. 

Over time, given our perseverance on our faith journey, we will begin to notice that our attitude towards, and perception of, ourselves begins to change. We begin to relate to ourselves in a way that Paul (1Cor 13: 4-7) describes as love. Why would this not be so? Our loving attitude towards ourselves grows. In experiencing an increasing sense of our own worthiness, there is less of a tendency to be jealous, conceited or proud. Ironically, we are less irritable with ourselves and our shortcomings even though, in our increasing self-awareness, our imperfections seem to be more and more apparent to us! We no longer keep a record of our wrongs, but are accepting of the growing awareness of the truth of who we are - a child of God, born in his image and likeness. We no longer give up on ourselves. We keep on hoping in God's ongoing healing in our lives. There is an ongoing growth in our confidence in God's loving mercy.    

The interplay between faith and actions is well described in the Letter from James (James 2:14 - 24) as well as in Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor 13:1 - 13). Both writers emphasize that the proclamation of faith is meaningless unless it is accompanied by loving action. Our loving action is the ongoing manifestation of a living-out of our conversion or "Yes" to God. Indeed, the growth in our faith is recursively linked to the quality of our love - the more our faith grows, the greater the quality of our love; the ever-increasing quality of our love, the ever-deepening growth in our faith.

The changing quality of our love, though most readily understood as extending towards others, needs to be experienced towards ourselves too.