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 [...]
"No sinner is ever consoled by having a moral theology flung at his head. Perhaps the reason why Peter and not John was chosen as the Head of the Church was because he fell and, therefore, understood human weakness. Suffering may be sent to us because we have been too narrow and selfish in our [...]
"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 [...]
"I see that God never tries us beyond what we are able to suffer. Oh, I fear nothing; if God sends such great suffering to a soul. He upholds it with an even greater grace, although we are not aware of it. One act of trust at such moments gives greater glory to God than [...]
"Love is swift, sincere, kind, pleasant, and delightful. Love is strong, patient and faithful, prudent, long-suffering, and manly. Love is never self-seeking, for in whatever a person seeks himself there he falls from love. Love is circumspect, humble, and upright. It is neither soft nor light, nor intent upon vain things. It is sober and [...]
"Love – caritas – will always prove necessary, even in the most just society. There is no ordering of the State so just that it can eliminate the need for a service of love… The State which would provide everything, absorbing everything into itself, would ultimately become a mere bureaucracy incapable of guaranteeing the very [...]
"Take patiently the petty annoyances, the trifling discomforts, the unimportant losses which come upon all of us daily; for by means of these little matters, lovingly and freely accepted, you will give Him your whole heart, and win His. I mean the acts of daily forbearance, the headache, or toothache, or neighbor, the effort of [...]
"The willing desire to suffer every pain and hardship even to the point of death for the salvation of souls is pleasing to [God]." Source: St. Catherine of Siena, The Dialogue, Paulist Press, 1980 The Dialogue was dictated by Catherine over a period of five days. Three scribes worked to keep up with Catherine [...]
"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 [...]