Helpful Verses:
“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” Colossians 3:12
“The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made.” Psalm 145: 8–9
“So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. But many who saw them leaving recognised them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.” Mark 6:32
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.” 2 Corinthians 1: 3–4
Interesting Quotes:
“Compassion asks us to go where it hurts, to enter into the places of pain, to share in brokenness, fear, confusion, and anguish. Compassion challenges us to cry out with those in misery, to mourn with those who are lonely, to weep with those in tears. Compassion requires us to be weak with the weak, vulnerable with the vulnerable, and powerless with the powerless. Compassion means full immersion in the condition of being human.” Henri Nouwen
“It is my belief that in our mad world where there is so much pain, rivalry, hatred, violence, inequality, and oppression, it is people who are weak, rejected, marginalized, counted as useless, who can become a source of life and of salvation for us as individuals as well as for our world. And it is my hope that each one of you may experience the incredible gift of the friendship of people who are poor and weak, that you too, may receive life from them. For they call us to love, to communion, to compassion and to community.” Jean Vanier
“Christ is still longing to touch this suffering world through the compassion of his church, and his apprentices are people of compassion. They know how to look for pain in the eyes of others. They know that labels don’t help people change. They believe that love always has hands and feet. It is our choices that will reveal whether the church today becomes known as a well-spring of compassion or a place where no one particularly cares.” Adele Calhoun
Example Patterns:
Sign up to serve once a month in one of the KXC Compassion ministries.
Practise being present to people: Give people eye contact, keep your phone away during conversations, notice your body language, ask questions and listen without drawing the conversation back to yourself.
Podcast:
John Swinton joins us from his sabbatical in Australia to share his thoughts and insights on compassion. John was a nurse in the mental health sector and now is a professor at the University of Aberdeen. He has a beautiful vision for living lives of compassion fuelled by his life long work and friendship with those affected by mental health.