Compassionate Living

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About a year ago I shared a reflection about the practice of living mindfully. Here I am choosing to share more about how mindfulness has challenged me to live more compassionately. I look at life through the lens of compassion. What a difference this makes!

The goal of mindfulness in its essence is to live compassionately. Each breath I take is an opportunity to consciously breathe in the love of our God, the Source of all life and love, and to intentionally receive that love and breathe out the gift of “loving-kindness” to self and others. My prayer intention for each day is that I may live compassionately. My awareness of being an instrument of compassion for our world has made a significant difference in my life. 

At times I focus only on breathing in God’s love for me and sending that love out from me. Other times I breathe in God’s grace and send it to people I love, to those I may find difficult to love, and to places in our world in need of grace. On occasion when I am more aware of the power of God’s grace at work in me I am able to relieve the pain of another by taking on their pain, as Jesus showed us by the way he lived. 

Practicing mindfulness nurtures my ability to be at one with others, even at a distance. Suspending judgment and breathing compassionately in the present moment allows me to “be” a loving presence in the NOW. I’ve learned that feeling and being are essential to creating a more compassionate me and world.

Each of us can be a channel of God’s love. Will you consciously choose to “be compassion” wherever you are? Seek out others to be with on this quest.

Mary Therese Johnson, OP
Sinsinawa, WI

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