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New every morning is your love, great God of light, and all day long you are working for good in the world. Stir up in us desire to serve you, to live peacefully with our neighbors and all your creation, and to devote each day to your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

"A Liturgy for Morning Prayer," Upper Room Worshipbook

Used by permission from the Book of Common Worship, © 2018 Westminster John Knox Press. All rights reserved. This prayer appears in “A Liturgy for Morning Prayer” in Upper Room Worshipbook.

Today's Reflection

GENUINE COMPASSION does not consist of “just doing it,” faking it, or forcing yourself to act the way you have been told you are supposed to act. It does not mean loving your enemy despite what you feel. Instead, true compassion means your actions and interior experiences mirror one another and flow from one another. Spiritual traditions have created practices to help fill your life ever more completely with this compassion.

The process of filling our lives with compassion begins with recognizing our deep longing for this profound human experience. The longing for compassion appears in human beings whether they are part of a spiritual tradition or not. According to the Christian spiritual path, this longing is not our own desire—it is Divine Mystery, God, the eternal Source of Compassion longing through our entire being. We begin to expand compassion in our lives by engaging this Divine longing within us. We may then return repeatedly to taste this longing, allowing it to draw us ever more deeply into the Compassion at the heart of our being.

—Andrew Dreitcer, Living Compassion: Loving Like Jesus (Upper Room Books, 2017)

Today's Question

When do you most feel a tug or a calling to show someone compassion?  

Today's Scripture

“If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.”
—Philippians 2:1-2 (NRSV)

Prayer for the Week

Lord, make me an instrument of your compassion.
Submit your prayer to The Upper Room or share it in the comment section.

Something More

Reverend Junius B. Dotson was preaching at a funeral when suddenly he realized he wasn’t going to make it through the service. The next thing he knew, he was in an ambulance on the way to the ER, where he was diagnosed with extreme exhaustion. Read more about his Soul Reset.

Lectionary Readings

(Courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity Library)

Looking for lectionary-based resources? Learn more about The Upper Room Disciplines.

Sponsored by The Upper Room. Copyright © 2019 | PO Box 340004 | Nashville, TN 37203-0004 | USA

13 Comments | Join the Conversation.

Today's Reflection

[I HAVE] COME to understand that the heart of Jesus’ invitation to love is an invitation to compassion—to live compassionately. We’ll soon explore this notion at some length, but for now it’s important to note that in the Christian scriptures and in Christian history, love is defined largely in terms of compassion. That’s a relief to me. I confess I’ve never found it easy to define love. It’s so very big. I can call it agape or say it’s some complex mash-up of romantic, platonic, and unconditional stuff, but in the end, a precise definition of love eludes me. Love simply covers too much territory.

Compassion, though, gives me a handle on the massive umbrella that is love. According to Christian understandings, compassion refers to the concrete ways love (divine and human) is expressed. Compassion grounds love in the world we know.

—Andrew Dreitcer, Living Compassion: Loving Like Jesus (Upper Room Books, 2017)

Today's Question

What does "living compassionately" mean to you?  

Today's Scripture

"As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience."
—Colossians 3:12 (NRSV)

Prayer for the Week

Lord, make me an instrument of your compassion.
Submit your prayer to The Upper Room or share it in the comment section.

Something More

Reverend Junius B. Dotson was preaching at a funeral when suddenly he realized he wasn’t going to make it through the service. The next thing he knew, he was in an ambulance on the way to the ER, where he was diagnosed with extreme exhaustion. Read more about his Soul Reset.

Lectionary Readings

(Courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity Library)

Looking for lectionary-based resources? Learn more about The Upper Room Disciplines.

Sponsored by The Upper Room. Copyright © 2019 | PO Box 340004 | Nashville, TN 37203-0004 | USA

9 Comments | Join the Conversation.