Compassion Begins With You (and Me)

Someone sent this video which is too wonderful. Everyone I've shared it with has their favorite moment. You can tell alot about a person by the way they treat animals. The Dali Lama says, "If you want to start being a non-violent person; stop killing insects." It's do-able (more often than not). 

"When our hearts are authentically open to universal communion, this sense of fraternity excludes nothing and no one. It follows that our indifference or cruelty towards fellow creatures of this world sooner or later affects the treatment we mete out to other human beings."  Pope Francis

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What is a heart of mercy? It is the heart on fire for the whole of creation, for humanity, for the birds, for the animals, even for demons, and for all that exists. By the thought of them, the eyes of a merciful person pour forth tears in abundance. By the strong and intense mercy that grips such a person's heart, and by such great compassion, the heart is humbled and one cannot bear to hear or to see any injury or slight sorrow in any creature. For this reason, such a person offers up tearful prayer continually even for irrational beasts, for the enemies of the truth, and for those who harm him, that they be protected and receive mercy because of the great compassion that burns without measure in a heart that is in the likeness of God.  Saint Isaac of Syria ~ 7th c.

Intercessions ~ Fifth Sunday of Easter

May is Mary's Month:/ Mary,/ the first disciple/ who carried Christ within her through the hill country to visit elder-relative, Elizabeth./ May we realize how truly we carry Christ within ourselves./ May we learn to see Christ in others./ We pray to the Lord.

Pope Francis visits Egypt this weekend./ May his words of reconciliation and justice be heard by all./ May even those who protest his visit/ come to embrace his invitation for a peaceful Middle East./ We pray to the Lord.

We pray for our country in its many internal problems and concerns:/ its infrastructure,/ health care,/ mental health,/ veteran and elder care,/ gun violence and drug addiction./ We ask for the help and healing we need./ We pray to the Lord.

Tuesday is the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker./ We pray blessings for those whose work benefits us./ For the un-employed and under-employed./ For the disabled who cannot work./ For those whose work is dangerous,/ exhausting or un-just./ We pray to the Lord.

Bless the young children who receive their First Holy Communion in May./ May our hearts be as pure today as they were the day of our own First Communion./ We pray to the Lord. 

Give strength and healing to our families./ Grant what is needed for their well-being,/ success and growth./ We pray for the sick/ and those who suffer chronic pain or depression./ We pray to the Lord.

The Shuiskaya Mother of God

The Shuiskaya icon of the Mother of God was created as a place of intercession during the plague of 1654 in Shuia, Russia. But while the plague abated, the wonders continued. Sadly, the original icon disappeared in 1922. Healing science didn't exist in the mid 17th century the way it does for us in the 21st. So the new religious/spiritual question is: What plagues us today?

In his recent Holy Week homilies Pope Francis spoke of another kind of sickness which afflicts us: our divisions and wars. our love of power, appearances and money, our hatreds, selfishness, pride, greed, revenge and idolatry. He often speaks of the reckless destruction of  our planet-home: the oceans choked with plastic, the ground ripped open for its minerals, the extinctions of plant and animal life. And that we have lost our sense of shame.

Notice that while the icon was painted during a time of deadly sickness, its painted message is not gloomy. The Mother of God doesn't frown, but smiles maternally. She holds the Divine Child in her right arm and his foot with her left. He sits in her embrace playing with his right foot. Her maphorian (mantle) is ample - large enough to enfold our weary world.

Where we might expect  sorrow (or even punishment if the painter had been able to anticipate the sickness of our own time) there is only light, bright-joy and solidarity, as the Mother and Child interface with us. We might even sense the playfulness of God who invites us to change.

If the Child's scroll were un-rolled, maybe the message would read: "Save your planet. Stop hating each other. Stop all the killing."