Compassion

Tonight I completed a reflection for my Spiritual Life class. While reflecting, I thought about Henri Nouwen's explanation of compassion that I learned in college. I think it is completely relevant in the fight for justice in urban education. -----“The word compassion is derived from the Latin words pati and cum, which together mean “to suffer with.” Compassion asks us to go where it hurts, to enter into places of pain, to share in brokenness, fear, confusion, and anguish. Compassion challenges us to cry out with those in misery, to mourn with those who are lonely, to weep with those in tears. Compassion requires us to be weak with the weak, vulnerable with the vulnerable, and powerless with the powerless. Compassion means FULL IMMERSION in the condition of being human.”