Reflection
A human being is part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest. A kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from the prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and the sense in which they have obtained liberation from the self. We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if humanity is to survive.
Albert Einstein
Prayer
May I widen my circle of compassion
Action
What does it mean for you to widen your circle of compassion/ Who and what are excluded from that circle? How can you include them?
Suggested Reading
God is gracious and righteous; our God is full of compassion.
Psalm 116:5
May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another that together you may with one voice glorify the God of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.
Romans 15:5
To understand one another, and to grow in charity and truth, we need to pause, to accept and listen to one another. In this way we already begin to experience unity. Unity grows along the way, it never stands still. Unity happens when we walk together.
Pope Francis
Compassion and tolerance are not a sign of weakness, but a sign of strength.
Dalai Lama
Compassion is the keen awareness of the interdependence of all things.
Thomas Merton
If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.
Mother Teresa
There never was any heart truly great and generous, that was not also tender and compassionate.
Robert Frost
In compassion, when we feel with the other, we dethrone ourselves from the center of our world and we put another person there.
Karen Armstrong
Humanity’s collective mission in the cosmos lies in the practice of compassion.
Dalsaku Ikeda
This is the age of Holy Spirit, this is the age of the universal principle — the open, flexible field of consciousness, the understanding of the unity of life in the multiplicity of human experience, so that we find in our culture again that hidden unity which transcends the fate of multiplicity and nemesis.
Cecil Collins