That love of God is by far the most important aspect of man's life was thus emphatically and unmistakably, proclaimed by Our Lord Himself. And it is on this theme that Dom Aelred Graham, the distinguished Benedictine, has written a brilliant and rewarding book. He sums up his approach when he says:
"That it is more important to love God than to know, Him is one of the convictions which inspire these pages. Yet love presupposes knowledge. Not blindly must the Beloved be approached, but with enlightened understanding. Short of the experimental knowledge of the mystics, on which it would be presumptuous folly to rely, perhaps the means best calculated to ensure fulfilment of the greatest of the commandments lie in our trying to appreciate, however imperfectly, what God is, to discern there by something of His innate lovableness; and, we may add, what man is and how great his need for God. Accordingly the attempt is here made to consider man's love for God, both in itself, and in its relation to human life as a whole. The command to love God above all else is given to every Christian; it is not the exclusive concern of those who dedicate themselves to the priesthood or take vows of religion.”