“But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return,” said our Lord in today’s Gospel of Saint Luke. Father Micah reflects on an anecdote from Saint Silouan the Athonite: love for our enemies is the highest love we are capable of. It is a love that is free from self involvement. This love first requires humility and forgiveness. Forgiveness meaning we remember our enemies’ wrongs no more and invite them to share in our lives. We embrace them as our Father embraces us. Forgiveness is essential to the Christian life. It is essential for us to be prepared to receive Holy Communion, Christ who is himself forgiveness. We must practice “loving freely” every day. As we celebrate the feast day of the Holy Protection of the Theotokos, may we call upon the mother of our Lord that she might give us strength to forgive those who hate us, those who hurt us, and those who have wronged us. Let us love our enemies with hope in the promise of today’s Gospel reading: “and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the selfish. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.”