The Power of Compassion




 “It is compassion that removes the heavy bar, opens the door to freedom, makes the narrow heart as wide as the world. Compassion takes away from the heart the inert weight, the paralyzing heaviness; it gives wings to those who cling to the lowlands of self” Nyanoponika Thera


I was going to use this quotation in my sermon yesterday about the relationship between saltiness and peace but it seemed to make the message more cumbersome than needed. Nevertheless, it does seem to speak to the paradoxical power which is inherent in that which is invisible and which gift can render. After all, “compassion” and “heavy bars” are an unlikely coupling.

In these times of pandemics and perils, despair and fear, we may feel actually and metaphorically “locked down”. May a gentle breeze of compassion and care loosen those feelings of entrapment and may a vision of free flight replace the darkness.

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