Many people make donations to good causes such as poverty and famine relief, medical research, the RSPCA, and to charities assisting the ever increasing number of refugees. But there is another aspect of compassion which is much more personal.
When someone asks to share with us some problem or dilemma, we have to identify with them, get under their skin as it were, to empathise with them. We may not be able to find an immediate answer for their issue but by listening wholeheartedly their burden is often lightened. Once again, it is through the simple practice of meditation, of learning to listen within, that we become more aware and better able to hear the needs of others.
This morning I was thinking about how Jesus listened, how he looked, how he was wholehearted in his connection with each individual who sought a relationship, even briefly with him. The word GAZE, often associated with God’s loving care for us. words from a card I picked up at Burford Priory, now Mucknell Abbey, in Worcestershire many years ago came to mind: “I am thy prayer, and all thy prayer is said if thou but look on me.”
It is helpful to ponder simply, quietly and look on him, and know being held in that gaze at work in us, will aid our prayer.