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Wondering Pilgrim

~ the ramblings of a perambulent and often distracted sojourner

Wondering Pilgrim

Tag Archives: compassion

Marriage in the air…

09 Tuesday Jan 2018

Posted by wonderingpilgrim in Spirituality, theology

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

compassion, divorce, fragility, Hosea, Marriage, relationships

wedding-rings-949106_960_720

CC0 Public Domain – https://pixabay.com/en/wedding-rings-before-rings-wedding-949106/

News programs highlight that yesterday, the first Monday after New Year’s Day, is the day that typically peaks for relationship breakdown and in particular marriage separation and demands for divorce.

Today is the first day that same-sex couples are able to legally tie the knot under Australian law.

Synchronistically, today’s set text is from the Hebrew prophet Hosea, whose love for his estranged wife, Gomer, becomes a model describing God’s yearning for God’s people. Writing for “With Love to the World,” the Rev’d Keith Rowe claims Hosea’s insights are valued

because they provide a language for later believers wanting to think and speak about human fragility and divine compassion.

Whether it’s in the fraught area of vulnerable human relationships or wider public policy, we need to learn how to speak more of this language. Within our own household circles is a good place to start.  Many will find social media to be a good place for practice. Who knows where the ripples going out may reach?

Life and marriages will still be messy, but more caring and compassionate. Ask Hosea!

 

Mercy from the inner womb

02 Monday Apr 2012

Posted by wonderingpilgrim in Africa, Ministry, Spirituality, theology

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

aramaic, compassion, Greek, Kony, Mercy, Uganda

The Spirit of Compassion by Raynor Hoff (1894&...

The Spirit of Compassion by Raynor Hoff (1894–1937), carved from marble on the South Australian National War Memorial, unveiled in 1931. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Healthy are they who from the inner womb birth forth compassion,
they shall feel its warm arms embracing them.

(Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy)

Mercy is often depicted as the grudging letting go of rightful retribution or discipline for a wrong, along the lines of “OK, I’ll let you off this time,but you’re on notice. Don’t let it happen again.” It is often associated with a Western understanding of jurisprudence, allowing for some melioration of the hardness of the cold scales of justice

The word in Greek is eleos, taken after the god Eleos renowned in Hellenistic mythology for pity and compassion. The stories relate to shelter and reprieve for those caught in the maelstrom of political and military conflict.

The translation from Aramaic reinforces not only the notion, but the depth of commitment and nurture behind compassion. Indeed it is a quality that is birthed rather than decided. It is warm and flowing, eschewing all association with jurisprudence.

We may know some such merciful ones.

Recent attention on Uganda has contrasted the viral Stop Kony campaign (for justice) and not so well known rebuilding programs such as those run by the Irene Gleeson Foundation which provides shelter, food, health care, education and vocation for former child soldiers and the following generations. The latter is the face of mercy.

 

 

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-31.911079 115.772731

Creating Communities of Compassion and Hope

13 Friday May 2011

Posted by wonderingpilgrim in Ministry, mission, Wembley Downs

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

community, compassion, hope, postaday2011, ted

From a previous church camp at Landsdale Farm School

Our church is in camp this weekend. It’s our annual pilgrimage to Landsdale Farm School, a state education department residential facility about 20 minutes from home. We hang out, eat, converse and have fun. There are lots of animals to keep the kids enthralled and we have a couple of group sessions around a theme – hence the headline, inspired by a TED talk which I blogged on back in February.

We will explore creativity in relation to community, compassion and hope – looking to some of the most overlooked to assist us. We never come back from a church camp feeling we have not gained something in bonding, growth in maturity and understanding, and confidence in being who we are called to be.

“Avagoodweegend!” – ‘cos we’re going to!

-31.911079 115.772731

Compassion – a “spiritual technology”…

18 Friday Feb 2011

Posted by wonderingpilgrim in Ministry, Personal, Spirituality

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

compassion, Krista Tippett, postaday2011, sermon on the mount, TED.com

Krista Tippett: Reconnecting with compassion | Video on TED.com.

Compassion has become a cliché through overuse and overexposure, contends journalist Krista Tippett. With story and lateral thinking, she explores new ways to reclaim and implement a sorely needed collective value. By linking it with everyday expressions such as “kindness,” “curiosity without assumption” and “beauty”, she invites us to reinvest in and reinvigourate a core component of being human. She wants to marry creativity with compassion in a “spiritual technology.”

Worth a listen if you are contemplating the climax of this week’s lection in Matthew 5:28-38 “Be perfect, therefore, even as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (rendered by Luke 6:36 as “Be merciful (compassionate) even as your Father is merciful (compassionate.”)).

[Memo to the pedantic: the contextual and theological relationship between the words “perfect” (teleos), and mercy/compassion (to yield, give way, commiserate, put yourself in place of the other) is defendable]

-31.911079 115.772731

That’s worth taking on!

22 Monday Feb 2010

Posted by wonderingpilgrim in Personal

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

compassion, fasting, Fr Laurence Fereeman, Lent, meditation

Lent is not a customary observance within the tradition of Christian formation that nurtured me. But I have come to it much in latter years. There is something very powerful about being caught up in the re-enactment of the Christian festivals and fasts that tell our story year after year.

Contrary to the popularised idea of Lent as a time of denial of self-indulgence in one (usually small) simple pleasure, prompting the oft asked question “What are you giving up for Lent”, I am attracted to the idea of “taking something on for Lent.”  I notice that other bloggers have also been attracted to this variant and in my view, truer stance.  See More Meredith Gould and The Go-Between God. After all, Jesus’ constant refrain throughout this season’s commemorated journey with his confused disciples is “Take up your cross (daily) and follow me.”  The invitation is to consider what this metaphorical cross is like. Surely it is the work of allowing God’s Spirit to mould oneself to the way of Christ – the way that gradually replaces self-indulgent me-ism with other-focused compassion. These are the hallmarks of the reign of God that Jesus modeled and taught. It takes focus, and, for many, fasting helps pay such sustained attention.

For me, meditation works best. So it was affirming to hear, during his Perth visit, the leader of the World Christian Meditation Community, Fr Laurence Freeman, encourage us to “take on compassion for Lent.” He also said “practicing kindness” was the best preparation for meditation.  So – an outer practice that is other centred to prepare for an inner focus that is self-stripping – not in self-negation but in a way that engages silence, stillness and simplicity in the quest for the reign of God in all that matters.

That’s worth taking on!

-31.911079 115.772731

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