Without love, nothing

A heart-shaped stone sits at the center of a table empty of any other setting, while many small ordinary objects (a spoon, a key, a candle, a book) are drawn faded and grey around it, as if nothing has colour or weight until the heart is placed among them.

Lord, you’ve taught us that everything we do without love is worth nothing. Send your Holy Spirit and pour into our hearts that best of all gifts, love. Love is what holds peace and every goodness together, and without it, anyone who is alive is counted as dead in your eyes. Please give us this, for the sake of your only Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.

If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have absolute faith so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

1 Corinthians 13:2 (BSB)

Adapted from the Book of Common Prayer (1662), in plain words. The verse is from the Berean Standard Bible (public domain). Drawing: Mutter.