Compassion: The First Word About God

Rev. AndreaGrace and the BeLoved Community pray together every Sunday at 10 AM ET in a variety of ways - through word, music, meditation, visio divino and more. We learn from and pray with both the Saints (canonized) and saints (holy people) using inclusive language and images. 

These highlights from our service on June 14, 2026, 11th Sunday Ordinary Time Cycle A, are shared here as a resource for your prayer, reflection, and continued spiritual practice. 

Intro: Today, we’ll hear God’s compassion. 

• In English, compassion means to “suffer with another” 

• In Hebrew, “compassion” comes from the root of the word “rakhum” which means “womb.” It is to love and care for another as if they came from our own womb, if they were our own child. 

• In Greek, the word for compassion is “oiktirmos” which includes a visceral understanding of compassion, involving the stomach and the heart 

• There is a refrain throughout the Hebrew Scriptures that describes YHWH as “compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, forgiving to the thousandth generation.” Compassion is the first word used to describe YHWH – Building on our exploration last week of Corpus Christi – the body of Christ. Compassion has deep roots in the body, in a mother’s body. 

Expanding Our Image of the Trinity

God, The Compassionate One

Jesus – Who showed us how to be compassionate

The Holy Spirit – that opens us to compassion

Communion of Saints

St. Anthony of Padua was a Franciscan priest who lived from August 15, 1195 thru June 12, 1231. In Padua, Italy. He was known for his compassion – delivering bread to peopl who were hungry… and miraculously, they say his bread basket was never empty. One story tells of the time he was at a well and met a woman whose key had fallen down. He said a prayer, put down the bucket and when he pulled it up, Baby Jesus was there holding the key. That is why he is the patron of lost items/ finding things! His feast day is June 13.  

St. Gianna Beretta Molla, lived from October 4, 1922 to April 28, 1962 also in Italy. She was a compassionate person, involved in the St. Vincent DePaul Society that helps people who are struggling financially. One bio said: “Gianna loved life.  Fashion, music, art, skiing and nature were her passions.” She was a pediatrician, wife and mother. She had three children and then lost two babies in miscarriages. In her next pregnancy, she developed a tumor on her uterus. She decided to have a risky surgery – removing the tumor but saving her womb and unborn baby. The baby was delivered on Good Friday… but Gianna developed an infection and died shortly thereafter. St. John Paul II canonized her. She is considered a patroness of pregnant women, moms and doctors. St. Gianna’s Feast Day is April 28

Praying with Music

• By Breath: To be compassionate is to treat another with LovingKindness, as they are a sibling in this Divine Family… we are all one in our Beloved God 

• Compassion – Change the World

• The Compassion Hymn

Opening Prayer

Oh Beloved God – Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, we read that You are “compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness and forgiving.” These qualities come alive in Jesus Christ. We see them in one another, too. Through our prayer service today, may we know your love more intimately and be transformed to share it more abundantly.  In your many holy names we hope and pray and trust. Amen. 

Readings

• A wonderful video on compassion in The Bible: This is created by a wonderful resource, The Bible Project. Interestingly, while the narrator is describing God as having a womb, the narrator continues to refer to God with masculine pronouns.

• Psalm 100:1-5 (adapted from Nan C. Merrill’s book, Psalms for Praying: An Invitation to Wholeness)

The Response is: We open the gates of our hearts!

Sing joyfully to God, all peoples of Earth!

Bring a gift of laughter!

Join hands in the great Dance of Life!

Know that the Holy One is God,

Who created us, and to Whom we all belong.

We are God’s people, the flock God shepherds. 

Open the gates of your heart with gratitude

and enter Love’s court with praise!

Give thanks to the Beloved, bless the holy Name.

Good indeed is the Holy One,

Whose compassion endures forever;

God’s faithfulness lasts from generation to generation.

• 2 Corinthians 1:3-4: In this reading, Christ is described as the Source of Compassion who encourages us so that we may encourage one another

• Matthew 9:35-38 exemplifies Jesus’ compass as He traveled from village to village

• Learning to Love More Fully  - How do we live out compassion? Joyce Rupp is a contemporary writer, international retreat leader, and conference speaker who has devoted herself to this topic. She is co-founder of Boundless Compassion, a “training program and network that encourage healthy self-compassion, explore compassionate living, and offer creative ways to nurture and sustain compassion.” Here are some practical suggestions: 

Compassion [is] a quality of heart that is aware of suffering and is willing to do what is possible to alleviate it….

I’ve learned that compassion includes more than being with those who suffer. Compassion involves personal transformation. 

It requires knowing the lens through which I view others and self, 

attentiveness to the judgments of mind and stirrings of heart, and 

deliberate choices in how I connect with the pain and suffering inherent in a significant portion of many people’s lives.

In my attempts to be compassionate, I resonate with Christina Feldman’s comment in Compassion: “We are always beginners in the art of compassion.” 

Just about the time I think I have finally become a compassionate presence, along comes a person or situation that throws my loving-kindness out of kilter. 

As Jack Kornfield notes in The Wise Heart, “Compassion is developed one person at a time.” He emphasizes: “The courageous heart is the one that is unafraid to open to the world. With compassion we come to trust our capacity to open to life without armoring.” 

Kornfield wisely notes that we can’t “take in every homeless person we meet, and fix every difficulty in our extended family and community…” Boundaries are essential. Self-compassion cannot be left out. 

At the same time, compassion requires the courage of heart to say “no to abuse, no to racism, no to violence, both personal and worldwide…”

When I remember to do what Rabbi Lawrence Kushner suggests, to imagine I am standing behind the back of another person whose way of life differs from mine and look out through his or her eyes, I can let go of my unkind mental judgments and armored heart. I can understand better what might motivate that person to believe and live in a certain way. It is then that I am able to turn toward the foundational entreaty of Jesus in which he urges,  “Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”(Jn13:34)

Rev. AndreaGrace’s Reflection

When I was at One Spirit Interfaith Seminary, studying Buddhism, multiple people mentioned the term: Divine Womb…. Turns out, “divine womb” is a concept found in almost all the world’s religions. As we’ve explored today, in Judaism, it’s the root for compassion. I just love that. 

When I was a first-year college student, I was studying in Washington DC. Many of the metro stations there are deep underground, with multiple long escalators. One day, I was going to catch the train, there was a mom and little boy in front of me. The mom got on the second escalator – and the boy froze on the platform in between the two escalators. I whizzed by him – and got on the next escalator… and then was riddled with guilt. I could have – should have stopped – and helped him get on the escalator. Should have treated him as a child of my heart. That incident has stayed with me… It has inspired me to do the kindness where I can…. To treat each person as I would want to be treated, as I would want my child treated or my parent. 

That means inviting people to come for dinner,

To spend the night when they’ve lost power,

To stay with me until they get on their feet

To visit someone who is sick

To tell someone it’s OK to leave this world and return to their Beloved God

To be compassionate. To offer LovingKindness as if they are a child of my womb. To recognize that they, too, emerged from the Divine Womb of Love… 

Last week, we explored Corpus Cristi. We can expand the Body of Christ – to the Divine Womb… I invite you to spend some time prayerfully exploring the Divine Womb. What if we envision or pray that someone is in the Divine Womb? What does that look like? Feel like? Sound like? What happens in a Divine Womb? Today, whom do you know that could use some time in a Divine Womb? In compassionate loving-kindness? 

Eucharistic Liturgy 

Read our standard prayers here.

L1 Prayer Exercise:  Buddhist namaste – 

The Buddhist term, namaste, literally means: I see the Divine in you. When can truly look at one another and recognize the Divinity present, Corpus Cristi, it’s so much easier to be compassionate. Often, namaste, is accompanied with a bow, a movement to signify humility in front of the Divine. We will break up into pairs – in breakout rooms – and look into each other’s eyes and pray: 

I bow to the God in you.

I bow to the mystery.

I look and I see God there.

Praise be to God in you.

Closing Prayer: “Heart of Compassion” by Joyce Rupp

Compassionate God,

your generous presence

is always attuned to hurting ones.

Your listening ear is bent

toward the cries of the wounded

Your heart of love

fills with tears for the suffering.

Turn my inward eye to see

that I am not alone.

I am a part of all of life.

Each one’s joy and sorrow

is my joy and sorrow,

and mine is theirs.

May I draw strength

from this inner communion.

May it daily recommit me

to be a compassionate presence

for all who struggle with life’s pain.

Amen

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