For, it is through prayer that we receive the courage to accomplish what God, neighbor, and our deepest selves are calling us to do. It is when we pray that we are able to surrender to a higher power one day at a time, accepting whatever comes. It is the practise of prayer that can teach us true wisdom, the wisdom of compassion, the wisdom of the heart.
~ from WISDOM OF THE CELTIC SAINTS by Edward C. Sellner
When someone has compassion on us, we find ourselves really seen, heard, attended to. If someone's attention is genuinely compassionate, it does not stop at attentiveness: he or she is willing to speak, act, or even suffer with us and for us. It is in such passivity, as we receive their compassion, that the most powerful dynamics of our own feeling and activity are shaped. Amazed gratitude for such compassion can last a lifetime.
