First Fruit of the Spirit: Charity

He will be silent in His love...
Zephaniah 3:17

The first Fruit of the Spirit is is Charity or, in the Greek, Agape, which means self-giving love as opposed to self-seeking love. Most of us know love as desiring something or someone. This is the kind of love the Greeks called Eros, a powerful and necessary kind of love but one that is meant to grow into the self-giving love that the Gospel calls charity. Charity is not alms giving. It is rather a participation in God's unconditional love...The growth of charity leads to self-surrender to God and to the compassionate love of others. The quality of Christ's love is the source of its vitality; the continual tender and loving awareness of the presence of God is its reward...Where does this charity come from? It is being infused into us in the silent seedbed of contemplative prayer.

Romans 5:5
God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.