Compassion is a virtue that is a foundation for many other virtues. How do we develop compassion? A simple way to look at compassion is that it is the ability to empathize with and care for those who are suffering. Do this mean that we need to experience similar suffering to develop compassion? There are [...]
"Kindness towards the afflicted becomes compassion, which means a suffering with, or an entering into the distress and the pains of others as if they were our own." -Ven. Fulton Sheen
"It is part of our fallen nature to despise the trouble we do not understand… When the sufferers complain much, we are inclined to think that they are exaggerating or giving way to cowardly weakness, just as the rich are too often ready to regard the very poor as whining imposters." Source: Ven. Fulton [...]
"It will invariably be found true that those who have suffered and who are saintly are always the most merciful to others. Not to be forgotten also are those who have received mercy and forgiveness themselves. One wonders if Saint Augustine was not one of the kindest and most compassionate of men, having been so [...]
"First, it will generally be found true that those who boast of their success in terms of money hardly ever help the poor. It is not that they are not generous, but that they are generous only to the rich. The haves are helped by those who have; it is the have-nots who help the [...]
"The eucharistic mystery thus gives rise to a service of charity towards neighbour, which 'consists in the very fact that, in God and with God, I love even the person whom I do not like or even know. This can only take place on the basis of an intimate encounter with God, an encounter which [...]
"Each celebration of the Eucharist makes sacramentally present the gift that the crucified Lord made of his life, for us and for the whole world. In the Eucharist Jesus also makes us witnesses of God's compassion towards all our brothers and sisters." Source: Pope Benedict XVI, SACRAMENTUM CARITATIS (Sacrament of Charity), 2/22/2007 [...]
"The cry of Jesus as He died, 'I thirst,' echoed every moment in my soul, inflaming my heart with a burning love. I longed to satisfy His thirst for souls; I was consumed myself with the same thirst, and yearned to save them from the everlasting fires of Hell, no matter what the cost." [...]
"The increase in diversified organizations engaged in meeting various human needs is ultimately due to the fact that the command of love of neighbor is inscribed by the Creator in man’s very nature. It is also a result of the presence of Christianity in the world, since Christianity constantly revives and acts out this imperative, [...]
"A man who does not live in harmony with his brothers, who mocks at those who weep and sneers at those who are glad, has no sympathy with them because their feelings do not affect him, he can never really see the truth in others. The proverb fits him well: the sound man feels not [...]