15 Dec 2024
The Little Prince Advent Retreat: Theme 3
Join Fr. Adam Potter for this third session of The Little Prince Advent Retreat as he reflects on the theme of relationship. In a sense, thirst leads us to relationship. “[W]e’re going to die of thirst,” said the Pilot. …“So you’re thirsty, too? The pilot asked. But he didn’t answer my question. He merely said to me, “water can also be good for the heart…” (67)
Consider the themes of shared responsibility, time, and suffering that leads to "creating ties" or being "tamed." Both the little prince and the pilot have their own journeys to understanding true love, and it culminates at the well.
Here are some helpful quotes used in the podcast, not in the book:
“The prince also begins to understand that his own actions within the relationship have bound him to the flower permanently. For one, the time and care he has lavished on the rose have transformed his own feelings toward her: she has gone from being simply a flower like any other to “his” flower. The relationship has also changed the flower herself, in the sense that it has made her more vulnerable. The prince, for instance, often things of the “four ridiculous thorns” (80) the flower has to protect herself, but this physical fragility is largely a metaphor for the flower’s new emotional fragility. Now that she loves him, he has the capacity to hurt her. As a result, the prince comes to feel that he has a duty to return to his rose.” (Study Guide, 50)
"Each of us can experience that in [Jesus’s] eyes we are loved, chosen by God, in an extremely personal way. We often have a feeling that God loves in a general way: he loves all men. But being loved in a ‘global’ way cannot satisfy us. And it is absolutely different from the reality of the particular, unique love that God the Father has for each of his children. God’s love is personal and individual. God does not love two people in the same way because it is actually his love that creates our personality, a different personality for each. There is a much greater difference between people’s souls than between their faces, says St. Teresa of Avila." (Jacques Phillippe, Thirsting for Prayer, 22-23)
"Even more mysteriously beautiful, God’s infinite love also makes Him infinitely vulnerable. Love makes the lover vulnerable. He is moved by the Beloved. She brings Him out of Himself. He gives all He is to each one without ever becoming less because He is infinite. He pours Himself out in creating us in His Image. He pours out His image and shares His very self with us. He pours Himself out in infinite vulnerability, emptying His divine self to become human (Phil 2:6-8), and becomes one with us in the Incarnation. He pours Himself out totally for us on the Cross as He suffers anything and everything that has ever been suffered for the sake of His Beloved. God becomes radically vulnerable, using all His divine power not to protect Himself but to love more deeply and become more vulnerable to us. And He does this for all, and for each and every one as if each were the only one." (Frs. Acklin & Hicks, OSB, Personal Prayer: A Guide for Receiving the Father’s Love, 11)
