Holy Spirit, please lead my hand.
1 John 2
Father,
If i have hated my brother and sister, if i have denied them compassion, then i am indeed in darkness and have never left it. I want to abide in the Light, Father. If i have not shown love to my brothers and sisters, by Your Holy Spirit please purge it out of me. Make me more loving to my spiritual family, please? Whatever envy, malice, hatred, lust, murderings; please boil them to the surface and scum them off. Free me please, this wretched sinner, from any absence of love that exists in my heart. For this communion we take of Your Son, Jesus Christ; we don't eat it alone.
Please bless this bread that is Jesus' body given for us.
Please bless this wine which is His blood which was poured out for the remission of sins; of the new covenant.
We repent of our lack of love, Father. Grow in us more love for each other by Your Holy Spirit. In Jesus name amen.
Loving one another is indeed a command, sibling. In fact Jesus went hard about such a biblical prayer in John 17. Not to cause argument but it's hurtful and misrepresenting what I said. To love is to be Holy. For love fulfills the law. Love God and love your neighbor. If you love then you obviously will put holiness as a priority. So rather the love is prerequisite to urging holiness. Holiness means nothing without its why. Why be Holy if God doesn't love us? If a Creator so magnanimous didn't love us despite our sins with Jesus on the cross then why would we bother to be better? What gain is there? I perceive you mean well by your words, but you do err, sibling in saying love is beneath holiness; it is because of love that holiness has reason and because of holiness that love can be perfected. But not one is less important than another. Else Jesus wouldn't have commanded we love our brothers and sisters and our neighbors and enemies.