Compassion and Prayer
Theme for the Week
Reflection By Scott Stoner
Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.
- Saint Augustine
When someone shares with me that they are suffering in some way or facing a great challenge, I always try to listen deeply to what they are saying, resisting any urges to offer advice or platitudes. After I feel I have heard them and understand as best I can what they are going through, I often say to them, “I will hold you and your concerns in my prayers.”
This Lent we have learned that compassion involves the awareness of another person’s suffering joined by a desire to alleviate that suffering. Letting someone know that we will pray for them, or that we are praying for them, is a compassionate response because it offers reassurance that no matter what they are going through, they are not alone. It is also true that knowing someone is praying for us can help to ease our own suffering. In this expression of prayer we see a twofold connection between compassion and prayer, the theme for this week’s reflections.
Personally, I know that many times when I have shared with someone that I have been praying for them, they respond by saying that they could feel the prayers. And I find great comfort when I know others are praying for me. This is the mystical power of prayer as a way of offering compassion to someone who is hurting. Compassion and prayer are at the heart of the Christian life. This week we will explore how compassion and prayer are connected and how each informs the other. We have curated and included prayers related to the theme of Practicing Compassion on pp. 78–79.
Making it Personal: What are your initial thoughts about the connection between compassion and prayer? Have you ever felt comforted by knowing that someone was praying for you? Are there people currently for whom you pray regularly?