Love is the first and the highest gift of the Spirit. When St Paul is talking about the gifts of the Spirit he tells us to pursue the highest gifts, and the highest gift is love, higher than any phenomenon that might happen to us, any wonderful, extraordinary, experience that might befall us. Love is the highest gift. In the fruits of the Spirit that St Paul describes in Chapter 5 of Galatians, love is the first: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, fidelity, gentleness and self control. And Jesus, of course, sums up his whole teaching in one single commandment, which he says is a new commandment: “Love one another.” “Whoever loves knows God.” That does not mean whoever loves God knows God, but whoever loves knows God.
(Aspects of Love 1 by Laurence Freeman OSB )
