I walked in the front door, and there tacked on the wall was a picture of the pregnant Madonna and these words: “This image represents each person who is trying to birth the Real Self, the Imago Dei that is taking shape within”. For that conception to move to its fullness, we all need time to be quiet, to be reflective, to be centred in our deep places.

During that retreat, I walked beneath the trees alone with God, alone with my True Self, praying wordless prayers, touching the space of mystery, going to the centre of my gravity. That time produced the energy needed to shift

my awareness to an Authentic I, which is the necessary prelude for real love and compassion.

Living out the Compassionate We means blending our tears with the world’s in a way that heals and creates a social community. The word compassion literally means com (with) passion (suffering).

Compassion is not, therefore, having a sentimental feeling of pity; it is sharing the pain with others. It means a “suffering with” that flows from the life of God in the soul, not from ego motivations.

When compassion wakes up in us, we find ourselves more willing to become vulnerable, to take the risk of entering the pain of others. We open our lives to them in a genuine willingness to be known. We tell them our own story of suffering as a way of offering healing and hope. We feel their heart bleeding into ours; we catch their tears. — Beliefnet.com