compassion, day 2

Come to Stillness: Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to be still before God.

Opening Prayer:
Loving Father, teach me to love and care for those that need you today.  Those who are passed over and do not feel love unless I love them for you.  May Christ's love for others be felt through me today.  In your name and by your power I pray these things.  Amen. (Disciplines for the Inner Life by Michael Benson and Bob Benson)

Psalm for the Week: Psalm 103

Scripture for the Day: Micah 6:6-8

Reading for Reflection: 

If someone asked you if you were compassionate, you might readily say yes.  Or at least, “I believe so.”  But pause to examine the word compassion and answering gets more complicated.  For the word comes from roots that mean literally to “suffer with”; to show compassion means sharing in the suffering “passion” of another.  Compassion understood in this way asks more from us than a mere stirring of pity or a sympathetic word.

     To live with compassion means to enter others’ dark moments.  It is to walk into places of pain, not to flinch or look away when another agonizes.  It means to stay where people suffer.  Compassion holds us back from quick, eager explanations when tragedy meets someone we know or love. (Turn My Mourning Into Dancing by Henri J. M. Nouwen)

 

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Song for the Week: Our God Reigns

 

So much holy So divine
Yours and so much mine
By the morning Light is Thine
Perfect by design
Mighty to men Light of the earth
Sending the son To echo his worth
Breaker of sin, Winner of souls
Every creature will know

Our God Reigns Over the Heavens
Over the earth Our God reigns
Praise His name All still standing
All that was, all that remains
Our God reigns

In devotion To His bride
Standing by her side
Mighty to men Light of the earth
Sending the son To echo his worth
Breaker of sin, Winner of souls
Every creature will know

 

Closing Prayer:
Our Father, here I am, at your disposal, your child, to use me to continue your loving the world, by giving Jesus to me and through me, to each other and the world.  Let us pray for each other as we allow Jesus to love in us and through us with the love with which His Father loves him. (Seeking the Heart of God by Mother Teresa)