By Fr. Michael Najim

I have to be honest, self-love is not a topic that I remember hearing much about growing up.  I can’t remember hearing a single homily on self-love, I don’t remember hearing about it in Catholic elementary school, and I know for a fact that I didn’t hear much about it in the seminary.

For some reason we struggle with the idea that God invites us to love ourselves.  Maybe it’s because we mistake self-love for selfishness; but, when we do that we’re really being falsely humble.  Humility is not about beating ourselves up; it’s about accepting and loving ourselves as God accepts and loves us, warts and all.

It’s important to state what self-love is not.  It’s not narcissism or self-glorification or egoism.  Self-love is being... More...