Compassion

EDIT: Javier has been sponsored! Wow wow! Thank you, Mattyb, & God bless you both! Today, we meet Javier, an eight year old boy in Honduras who has been waiting over six months for a sponsor! His birthday is this month as well — what a great gift it would be for him to [...]

SC Rest Stop Cats (5) Originally uploaded by toastiest This came to me today in an Email from Alley Cats. I am re-printing it in full, as the information is vitally important: October 16th is National Feral Cats Awareness Day! This morning, millions of Americans learned about the growing movement to help feral cats in [...]

Children’s Ministry has adopted a mission that’s easy to remember, fun for kids, and directed to help us be good Disciples. SPLAT stands for Serve, Pray, Love and Teach. We want to be like Jesus. We have a growing number of opportunities to learn about SPLAT such as SPLAT University on Wednesday nights (during [...]

  Welcome, we are at a pivotal turning point in our evolutionary process. The council said January through March is a time that we are releasing and transmuting residual energies from 2006, the year of the “Soul Retrieval”. No Tags

There comes a time in life when one decides to surrender to what is, to acknowledge that one has hit a wall. I have arrived at just such an impasse, and while it's not an easy thing to do, I finally have to admit that I feel powerless over my pain.Having worked with patients with chronic illness----including chronic pain---for years, I never saw myself as someone with chronic illness. People with intractable pain and multiple diagnoses were always separate from me, living in a world which I did not inhabit.Now, having quit my job due to the ravages of stress and chronic illness, I admit that I am---at least for the moment---struggling with chronic illness, and that its effect on my life is global and overwhelming.Up until now, I have consistently said that pain would not limit what I do, t

Why is compassion more easily expressed by those who think they can do something to help? Take that away and you will find faces sour. So is our charity truly altruistic, or just for the purpose of fanning our egos?

It’s Compassion Friday again, & this week, I present to you Viviane, an eight year old girl in Rwanda. She has been waiting over six months for a sponsor! For only $32/month you can sponsor this young lady & write her encouraging letters as well. Is God prompting you to help? EDIT: Viviane has already received [...]

Pope Benedict's recent pilgrimage to America focused on two major issues of the day. Namely, the untoward history of sexual abuse by Catholic priests and the church's anti-law and order position when it comes to illegal aliens.

Hat tip to Naughty Pat:Last night my sister and I were sitting in the den and I said to her, "I never want to live in a vegetative state, dependent on some machine and fluids from a bottle to keep me alive. That would be no quality of life at all, If that ever happens, just pull the plug."So she got up, unplugged the computer, and threw out my wine. She's such a bitch.

Pope Saint Pius X, in his 1910 Catechism, teaches us that sodomy ranks second in gravity to voluntary homicide, among the sins that "cry out to God for vengeance." According to this Catechism, these sins "are said to cry out to God because the Holy Spirit says so and because their iniquity is so grave and manifest that it provokes God to punish with more severe chastisements."The Catechism of the Catholic Church published by the Vatican in 1994 teaches clearly that homosexuality is contrary to nature and that homosexual acts are among the "sins gravely contrary to chastity." (CCC, 2396). This Catechism teaches that homosexual acts are "intrinsically disordered," "contrary to the natural law," and that "under no circumstances can they be approved." (CCC, 2357).In a discussion thread which m

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!' " Matthew 7:21-23CNN'S 'COMPASSION FORUM' A CASE STUDY IN UNITED STATES' SPIRITUAL FREE FALLBy Bill KellerLivePrayer.comThose who identify themselves as "Christians." Oprah calls herself a Christian. So do Senators Clinton and Obama. So do millions of others. Are these people really born again Believers who have accepted Jesus Christ by faith or do they identify themselves as "Christians" because they go to a Christian church, or

Well, the Compassion Forum was a great opportunity for the candidates to reach out and build some street credibility with evangelical voters. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama both accepted the opportunity to speak at this sort of “Evangelical Townhall” meeting. I was even asked to attend, but I’m too busy and too broke [...]

That’s a beer Hillary is chugging at a campaign stop in Crown Point, Indiana. And can you imagine the surprised look on my face when I saw this picture blown up and thrown on the front page of the Post Tribune? The Post Tribune is the leading regional newspaper in Northwest Indiana. Oh, but [...]

CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time Blog Archive - CNN to air exclusively ‘The Compassion Forum’ « - Blogs from CNN.com CNN forgot to invite me for some bizarre reason. I ooze compassion! If you don’t believe me, you can ask my mom. She caught me oozing compassion when I was [...]

Well, I’m a little sad on this Compassion Friday. Oscar has still not received a sponsor, & has been waiting, as stated last Friday, for OVER SIX MONTHS for a sponsor. It costs less than a tank of gas to sponsor a child per month (only $32!) so if you feel God is calling you [...]

I find the subject of compassion compelling. I believe this aspect of human-kind is a pivotal component in successful negotiation of the human experience where family and community is concerned. Pivotal, because in the absence of compassion there is stagnant disconnect. I suppose if one were to live solitary in the woods and could sustain [...]

If I were to elevate one flaw I have above all the others, it would be that I am not nearly compassionate enough. This is not to say that I’m exceptionally brutal or mean, merely that I see in myself the same flaw I see in the vast majority of others. The easiest example of this [...]

On April 20th Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will participate in a forum on faith and values at Messiah College in Grantham, Pennsylvania. It will be broadcast live on CNN. John McCain has been invited as well but has so far declined. The event has been called The Compassion Forum. The faq page [...]

Two churches in an act that broke all kinds of lines and actually lived out the Word according to the Abilene Reporter News Online: The racial, socio-economic and denominational lines that separate St. John Baptist Church and Wylie United Methodist Church were blurred Saturday, and the pastors of both churches hope they remain that way. A work [...]

Visualize someone to whom you feel very close, particularly someone who is suffering and in pain. As you breathe in, imagine you take in all their suffering and pain with compassion, and as you breathe out, send your warmth, healing, love, joy, and happiness streaming out to them. Now, gradually widen the circle of your compassion to embrace first other people to whom you also feel very close, then to those about whom you feel indifferent, then to those whom you dislike or have difficulty with, then even to those whom you feel are actively monstrous and cruel. Allow your compassion to become universal, and to enfold in its embrace all sentient beings, and all beings, in fact, without any exception.---Sogyal Rinpoche

I know it is normal to feel grief, anger, depression, etc but it is hard to just let myself do it without judging or fear that it won’t end. I’m always too hard on myself. So I am going to go with it without censoring myself from myself. I’m not in much pain. Sensation [...]

I’ve decided that I’m going to post each week about a child who has been waiting for more than six months for a sponsor through Compassion. I was so excited that someone sponsored Amando within a few days of the last post. For today’s Compassion Friday, meet Oscar, a nine year old boy [...]

I started an open discussion about "Animal Rights" a few days ago to get all my blog catalog users (majority based in America) to post their personal views, their points and also to share their thoughts about wearing fur. And I was quite happy to see many of them took their time to post their comments. Yes, there was a debate over this issue. Take a look [LINK]I was quite amazed that some said, it's OKAY to wear fur. This is why I don't understand. Like wisdom, compassion is uniquely human quality. So where is the sense of compassion? Where is the love for animals ya'll? I really hope that anyhoo out there who couldn't care less with Animal Rights, I'd suggest you bastards to tune in to Discovery Channel or even Animal Planet right after this okay. I promise you will learn alot! You think

As noted in the "Who Are We Anyway" section, L.A. Mama is from Missouri. This is a picture of how the neighborhood that she grew up in looks today:I've heard a lot of talk in this country about how people living in flood zones and/or wildfire areas are partially responsible for their fate. Do you think your fellow Americans enjoy watching everything they have worked hard for and their family heirlooms go down the drain? There were two major reasons why we lived in this neighborhood:1. We couldn't afford to live anywhere else. The neighborhoods that were safe from flooding were where the doctors and lawyers lived. Everyone else had to fend for themselves and take risks.2. My grandmother and great grandmother lived three blocks from me. It was important to our family to be close knit

I sponsor a child through Compassion & know that some of you out there sponsor children as well. Yet there are so many more children out there in need of sponsors! EDIT: You guys are awesome! Amando now has a sponsor!   This is Amando, a child in Honduras. He is nine years old [...]

Via Newsbusters Little Green Footballs has reported on the latest left-wing lunacy from the incredibly popular Democrat website Daily Kos, the Internet force that nearly every presidential contender sought out for support. The diarist “professorfate” thinks Americans are not only a flock of sheep, but that they need an invasion and occupation on their own soil [...]

“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience…” ~ Col.3:12 It’s interesting to me how much I learn as God leads me through specific places in my life, verses reading about it up front. As my recent post explained our church just spent some time around [...]

The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honourable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson*Love for your mother, father and siblings is natural and organic. We can have love for our partner if we have one and love for past partners. To have unconditional or true love is to love other beings whether or not they love you or even like you.~dharma teaching.True love is the answer to all problems, pain and suffering. If you have true love and compassion for your fellow man then you shall inflict no harm. Love is an earnest and anxious desire for and an active and beneficent interest in the well-being of the one loved. Yet, at times, you will feel a rage of anger, frustration and wish your fellow man

So, we have three more Compassion kids now. In addition to our boy Dissan, we've also added Esther, Abraham and Joseph--all from Uganda. We want to do this well. We want our communication with our kids to be consistent. And someday, when I meet them (and I will! One of...

YouTubesday is going to be slim today, mainly because I have three videos I’d strongly encourage you to watch, and they are a little bit longer then most. GOOD Magazine has been making some amazing videos. Particularly this one fits well with much of the topics on this blog, it’s about Skid Row in LA. [...]

I'm thinkin' there aren't too many of you who haven't been checking Shannon's and Sophie's blogs. They've had some amazing encounters. So, instead of my normal YouTube, I'm linking to some phenomenal pictures and video from Compassion's blogging trip (for...

A couple of my favorite bloggers are in Uganda this week for Compassion International. They're meeting amazing people and doing amazing things. Any one of us can help someone out. We're going to. Please take a look: Rocks in my Dryer Boomama

Your compassion can have perhaps three essential benefits for a dying person: First, because it is opening your heart, you will find it easier to show the dying person the unconditional love he or she needs so much. On a deeper, spiritual level, I have seen again and again how, if you can embody compassion and act out of the heart of compassion, you will create an atmosphere in which the other person can be inspired to imagine the spiritual dimension or even take up spiritual practice. On the deepest level of all, if you constantly practice compassion for the dying person, and in turn inspire him or her to do the same, you might heal the person not only spiritually but perhaps even physically. And you will discover for yourself, with wonder, what all the spiritual masters know: that the po

"I would rather feel compassion than know the meaning of it." -Saint Thomas Aquinas, 13th Century Italian Catholic Priest and Theologian, Saint Thomas Aquinas books// How do you feel when you see a homeless person holding a sign asking for money or food? Do you immediately assume that he is a drunk, or she is a drug addict? Do you check to see if your car doors are locked? Do you avert your eyes and hope for the light to turn green so you can drive away and get back to your normal happy life? Or, when you see this person, does something pull at your heart strings, making you wonder what lead him to this current circumstance and how you could help a little? As Aquinas says, wouldn't you... To read the rest of this post, please click the headline and go to the Thoughts On Quotes site.

Realtors Stress Family First During Divorce in Free Confidential ReportDid you know that currently in the United States at least half of all marriages end in divorce?You may know someone who is currently going through a divorce and could use someone to talk to with expertise in dealing with real estate during their time of need. You might suggest they call the hotline below for a confidential report to be mailed to them? What I find so valuable is the trend for family law to focus on the family first.  Preserving the kid’s best interest makes sense to me during this time of transition.My experience tells me that sound advice from a neutral third party during this stressful time is a key to moving in an informed direction.You can imagine that what is also needed is a lot of compassion and good old-fashion listening skills. As you may or may not know, our team has developed expertise in this area because our skill sets match up very well with what is needed from our clien

A man was lying on a blanket at the beachHe had no arms or legs.Three women were walking past and felt sorry for the poor man.The first woman said " Have you ever had a hug"The man said "No",So she gave him a hug and walked on.The second woman said "Have you ever had a kiss".The man said "No",So she gave him a kiss and walked on.The third woman walked over to him, knelt down and whispered in his ear,"Have you ever been Fucked?The fellow looked up in amazement and said "No"The woman smiled and said "You will be when the tide comes in."  Click here for more Funny and Quirky News and Jokes from Malaysia    

Published: Saturday 20th October 2007 By a European practitioner On October 17th 2007, the Human Rights Torch Relay (HRTR) held by the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong, reached Dublin, which is the 24th city in the 19th country that the relay has visited. David Norris, a member of the Irish Senate said: “We will wake [...]

You stood up as a community, and told me your best, most exclusive, and over-the-top goals that you could pick off your goals list. Your passion, optimism, and fearlessness made me proud, to say the least. I know that it wasn’t the easiest task to put yourself out there on a limb, and share such personal things. You guys did it gracefully! Since I know that this blogosphere is such a giving and selfless one, I’m going to ask you to once again come together as a community. This experiment, just like Gotta Get Goals, will benefit both the bloggers and the readers of those blogs. Feel free to use this banner on your post! I’m calling this one Caring Compassion Charity to stick with the theme, and here are the official rules: In a new blog post, list and write about the top 1 or 2 causes that simply make your palms sweat, your heart bleed, and send tears rolling down your cheeks. Make sure you tell everyone why this cause is so important to you as an individual. In the introduct

It is your responsibility to teach your children the things they need to know. Many parents are worried about the state of the world. Parents even complain about how there not much love and compassion in the way children is interacting with one another. Express love and compassion! Parents don’t realize that they [...]

Volunteer tourism is a hot topic these days. While volunteering overseas is not new, the “behind the scenes” reality has rarely been conveyed effectively to the masses. Daniela Kon aims to change that. She’s an independent documentary filmmaker currently in post-production of her debut documentary ‘Changing the World on Vacation – NGO Volunteers and the Politics of Compassion.’ The film is inspired by her own experiences volunteering with NGO’s in Thailand, India, and Cambodia in 2005/2006 and grew into an investigation into the moral complexity of development work and the personal and political boundaries of sustainability. Now the film needs your help. Daniela is looking to raise funds to aid in post-production expenses to complete the film and deliver it to the world. To help spread the word, I conducted an interview with Daniela about the project and volunteering overseas. Enjoy! BNT: How did you get into film? Daniela: I won a Television

A friend and co-worker of mine was telling me about her latest flight. They were flying home from the west coast when the announcement that all flight attendants dread came over the P.A. “Ladies and Gentlemen, we are experiencing a medical emergency on board. We are looking for doctors, nurses, EMTs or any other type of medical personnel. If you are one, please come up to the front of the aircraft.” Apparently, the Captain thought he was having a stroke. The Captain! After talking to MedLink, they decided to divert and land in Los Angeles. The Captain was taken to the hospital and a replacement was called in. The delay would take 2 hours. In the meantime, passengers were given the option of either staying on board or hanging out in the waiting area. They were all given vouchers to eat in the terminal. One lady who was sitting near my friend’s jumpseat said, “This is ridiculous.” My friend looked over at her and said, “What’s so ridiculous? To

Showing Compassion is something that many of us find relatively difficult to do, even to those that are suffering. In order to honestly show compassion, we first need to feel compassion. Imagine someone gets angry at you because they are suffering and being all caught up in the emotion they don’t see a proper way [...]

The Dalai Lama ended his 10-day visit to Hamburg on Friday with a call for more compassion and criticism of the actions of Chinese security forces in Tibet. "The more we try to make others happy, the happier we will be ourselves," the Dalai Lama told his audience at a tennis stadium in the northern German port city.

Bushtard Strikes AgainThe Victim This Time: ChildrenWhat Would Be HealthcareBush Has No ProblemAsking For Billions For WarHis Illegal WarsHis Wars Based On LiesHis Wars That Kill InnocentPeople And ChildrenPuts Our Soldiers InHarms Way, Stuck In A CivilWar, Bunk StrategyBush PrioritiesWhen It Comes To Healthcare, He'sAll Middle FingerThe Basic Rule IsIf Bushtard Can Harm Someone,He Will, Every TimeHe Cannot ResistBlowing Up Another FrogDenying A ChildNeeded Healthcare ThatWe Can Certainly AffordThere Is No Excuse'The CompassionateConservative', A ReallyStrange ContradictionNo One Should EverConserve Their Compassion, ThatTerm Is InvalidIt UsuallyMeans That Someone Is MostlyJudgemental, DetachedScared To Act BeyondWhat They Were Preached To, No ThoughtsOf Their Own, RobotsVIDEO: Marion Wright Edelman Slams Bush For Opposition To Providing Health Insurance To 9 Million Uninsured ChildrenWhere That Contradictory 'Compassionate Conservative' Label Came From   

There is an interesting letter in The Times Herald-Record (NY) that I cannot let slide without responding. The article, "My View: Being a believer means caring about and for others," by Kim Dixon contains one of the most common misconceptions about nonbelievers so prevalent among Christians. Have a look, and you'll want to respond too.Ms. Dixon, you identify yourself a "devout Roman Catholic." As a member of the only true Christian church, your comments deserve to be taken seriously.Being a believer means I have faith, hope and love. It means I try to take care of myself and those entrusted to me and those I don't even know. It means I donate time and money to my church community and to my town community. It means I raise my children to follow my example.Everything you describe here except "faith" and "church community" apply equally well to virtually every nonbeliever out there. I see nothing else in this statement that is not fully captured by secular humanism.As a secular humanist

We all have emotional wounds inflicted upon us by others. It is easy to feel resentful and angry, but as long as you feel anger and resentment that person is still controlling you. Don’t give them that power. Let the hatred go, and let the hurt inflicted upon you fade from your life. Find compassion [...]

“The teachings of all the great mystical paths of the world make it clear that there is within us an enormous reservoir of power, the power of wisdom and compassion, the power of what Christ called the Kingdom of Heaven. If we learn how to use it—and this is the goal of the search for enlightenment—it can transform not only ourselves but the world around us. Has there ever been a time when the clear use of this sacred power was more essential or more urgent? Has there ever been a time when it was more vital to understand the nature of this pure power and how to channel it and how to use it for the sake of the world?” The Dharma is so powerful how it tends to encompass all religions and ideals. The ultimate goal of any religion is to generate more compassion and better understanding in this world. Hopefully this understanding can translate into a better relationship with all of our problems as we see them. Shed some light into the truth of the added suffering we place o

There is a common myth that compassion and force can occur simultaneously. I am talking about the misguided concept that forcing American citizens to provide tax dollars toward foreign aid makes America compassionate. In reality, the percentage of GNP that a government commits toward foreign aid is a factor demonstrating how much power the government exerts over its citizens. Conversely, compassion only comes from voluntary action, not from coercion.Admirably, American citizens donate more of their own money toward foreign aid voluntarily than any other Country in the world; we just choose that the money does not come from tax dollars. For some reason, however, the liberal elites think that the only type of aid that matters is money that a government forces its citizens to give. To them, no matter how much charity citizens contribute, the government should still force its people to give more without their consent.This liberal lunacy is exemplified by the great humanitarian, Bono. He re

So, I’m not a huge Oprah fan. I’m not saying she shouldn’t be respected, because — dayum — the woman has built herself an empire from the ground up.  And I’m not saying that I don’t occassionally tune in.  But for the most part, I don’t really agree with what I hear on her show. But I watched something the other day that really did make me stop and think.  And you all know that if I think, you’re gonna hear about it. Oprah did something for some women because they had hard lives or whatever. (As you can see, I was clearly flipping back and forth between her and Judge Mathis.) So they were at this resort thingie, and having their round table cry-outs, when someone said something that really stuck with me.. She said that we, as women, too often confuse self-pity for self-compassion.  Stop and think about that. Now I, personally, had never heard of the term “self-compassion”.  I had only heard of “self-

"My message is the practice of compassion, love and kindness. These things are very useful in our daily life, and also for the whole of human society these practices can be very important."Basically, universal responsibility is the feeling for other people's suffering just as we feel our own. It is the realization that even our own enemy is motivated by the quest for happiness. We must recognize that all beings want the same thing we want. This is the way to achieve a true understanding, unfettered by artificial consideration."At the heart of Buddhist philosophy is the notion of compassion for others. It should be noted that the compassion encouraged by Mahayana Buddhism is not the usual love one has for friends or family. The love being advocated here is the kind one can have even for another who has done one harm. Developing a kind heart does not always involve any of the sentimental religiosity normally associated with it. It is not just for people who believe in religions; it is f

It's easy to twist words and ideas. Evolution and natural selection are fundamental theories in science and since we use science to explain the world around us then they are fundamental to us too. One could try twisting our religion by saying that natural selection should lead to the conclusion that we should not help those that are less fortunate, no matter whether it's health wise or money wise. That is not the case. In fact this is a fundamental thing and we'll never associate ourselves with anyone that holds those views.In all communities of men then it seems a virtue to help others, it seems to be one of those universal truths. When you weigh that against some deduction from scientific principles then we think it is clear that helping others is the way to go, not some natural selection. Note we are not saying that natural selection is wrong as a scientific theory, we are just saying that we humans should not use it as a guiding light for our lives. Hence we highly recommend tha

When I was a child, we sponsored a child with World Vision. Recently, my family has begun to support a child in Sri Lanka. This is a great opportunity to minister to the physical, educational and spiritual needs of children who are less fortunate, and often poor, neglected and under-privileged.While in India, it was an incredible blessing to visit one of Compassion International’s ministries and see how child sponsorship and church partnerships are making a difference. The Wesley Child Development Center is serving the needs of 253 children in a poor area of Chennai that was devastated by the Tsunami. A small group of our class was able to see firsthand how the Gospel is transforming lives.Compassion is a church-based ministry. They work through local churches. Although they don’t sponsor schools, all sponsored children are required to go to school. There are nearly 240 projects in Southern India serving 56,000 children. After school, students come to the project and participate in

Life 101! I can not stress enough the importance of compassion. That is the single most important lesson that we have to learn. The real key is to have it come straight from the heart and to mean it! Don’t get me wrong. I am not the person that will fly with the fae. [...]

Usually I have enough to do just trying to keep up with my own children let alone get into any of these opinionated debates , but since I am so very opinionated what better place to weigh in on my opinion.For those who have no idea of what I am talking about and have not seen any of the news stories with the public outcry from advocasy groups , check this out : http://ashleytreatment.spaces.live.comSince we have had 3 such children that Ashley's family very lovingly refer to as "Pillow Angels" and have actually "walked the mile in their shoes". I say this because I always say never judge a person unless you have walked a mile in their shoes , I feel we can be opinionated on this subject unlike those who are verbalizing such strong negative opinions without having any experience to do so.I have to side with the parents on this one and with the medical professionals who helped provide the treatment. Children who are so brain damaged that they cannot even move their limbs or verbalize

Astute readers will recognize that this has been one of the main themes of this Blog. I wonder if Pope Benedict XVI will now be accused by advocates of "The New Ecclesiology" of being "legalistic"?Paul.