"Love does not consist in gazing at each other,
​but in looking outward together in the same direction."
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

"If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became an adult, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. 
​But the greatest of these is love."
-St. Paul, 1 Corinthians 13

Harry's perfect response to Voldemort's taunt about weakness: "You're the weak one, for you'll never know love or friendship.  And I feel sorry for you." To be able to give and receive love is the most powerful gift to have!

 
What is Love? 
Love is the greatest of all the virtues.  And it is the foundation of everything that is good.  Nothing else has been written about more often than love, or studied more closely than love, or longed for more universally than love, or confused more regularly than love. 
Love is why human beings were created, and what we should live to be and do.  But what is it?  After all the philosophizing, and theologizing, and soliloquizing,
​what is love?
Stop.
There’s a place and a time for defining, and analyzing, and categorizing.  But to really get at the breadth and depth of love, and to really understand how to do it, we need to start with a different question. 
Because fundamentally love is not a what, love is a who. 
I can ask you to define what love is, and you might be able to quote someone.  And that warms you about as much as a screensaver picturing a fire in a fireplace.  But if I ask you who has loved you, you come alive.  Because love is incarnational, embodied, like no other virtue.
Love wears a face.    
Love has hugged you.  Who is love? 
Love has kissed you.  Who is love? 
Love has held your hand.  Who is love? 
Love has laughed with you.  Who is love? 
Love has cried with you.  Who is love? 
Love has sacrificed for you.  Who is love? 
Love has fought for you.  Who is love? 
We love because we have been loved;  that’s how we know what love is, and that’s how we know
that life is worth living. 
Can you even imagine your life without love?   
I encourage you to picture the faces of love in your life---those who make love real for you.  Fill up with gratitude, and feel good inside.  But don’t stop there.  Because there’s a world of people out there
​who need to be loved too.
Strive to be the face of love for another, and then another, and then another…  
And you’ll change the world.
And you'll be the best kind of hero.

Dr. Gary Chapman* suggests that their are five universal 'languages' to express and understand love in:

1. Words of affirmation
Love is primarily expressed and understood verbally
Example:  "You look beautiful tonight."
​2. Quality time
Love is primarily expressed and understood in terms of setting aside quality time for the other
Example:  Undivided attention
3. Receiving gifts
Love is primarily expressed and understood by giving and receiving gifts
Example:  A bouquet of flowers, "just because"
4. Acts of service
 Love is primarily expressed and understood by doing things which the other will appreciate, without being asked
Example:  Washing the dishes
5. Physical touch
Love is primarily expressed and understood through meaningful physical touch
Example:  Holding hands

*The Five Love Languages

"Live for yourself and you will
live in vain.
Live for others, and you will
live again."
-Bob Marley