Reflection
The most telling measure of the meaning of kindness in life is memories of unkindness… moments of scorn or rejection that leave a person feeling marginalized in the human community. In those moments of isolation we remember the impact of the fracturing of hope. We feel again the pain that comes with the assault on that sliver of dignity that refuses to die in us however much the degradation of the moment. It is then that we come to understand that kindness, compassion, understanding acceptance is the irrefutable mark of holiness because we ourselves have known – or perhaps have never known – the balm of kindness for which we so desperately thirsted in these situations. Kindness is an act of God that makes the dry dust of rejection digestible to the human psyche.
Joan Chittister, OSB
Prayer
Keep us, O God, from pettiness; may we be kind in thought, in word, and in deed.
Action
Reflect own your own life experiences in this regard. How have they formed your attitude toward others?
Suggested Readings
Love is patient, love is kind, and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. Now abide faith, hope and love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
I Corinthians 13:4-8a,13
Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
Ephesians 4:32
A warm smile is the universal language of kindness.
William Arthur Ward
Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.
Mark Twain
Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.
Lao Tzu
Carry out a random act of kindness, with no expectation of reward, safe in the knowledge that one day someone might do the same for you.
Princess Diana
Remember there’s no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.
Scott Adams
Never look down on anybody unless you’re helping him up.
Jesse Jackson
Don’t be yourself — be someone a little nicer.
Mignon McLaughlin
Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not.
Samuel Johnson
When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.
Abraham Joshua Heschel