By Henrita Frost, SSND
Every year on Valentine’s Day I celebrate an anniversary of compassion. I take time to rest in the gift of life, of a beating heart, as I remember a moment when the beating heart could have stopped, shut down. At a former place of ministry, an angry guest slashed my right cheek with a blade. This terrifying event brought me a gift of compassion that I always remember. When the ambulance attendant asked me to lie down, I replied I can’t. He embraced me and held me all the way to the hospital. His gift of compassion dulled the fear that was alive within me. The thirty-second anniversary of that embrace continues to inspire my compassion.
As time passed, life moved on. During those years, I was involved in ministries that called for compassion, but I know that the heightened awareness of it was not present. I could write about a specific event when fear blocked my ability to be compassionate. However, I will leave that and move on to my ongoing discovery of the Charter for Compassion.
My encounter with the Charter happened in 2014 and it was October 24, 2014 that the Christine Center became a member and a partner with the Charter. You are invited to join us in being dedicated to the Charter for Compassion, to living the golden rule – “Do to others as you would have them do to you” (Matt. 7:12). It is now 2018 and I wonder how has my compassion grown, how alive is it? We know that in our global community there is an overwhelming need for compassion.
The Charter for Compassion believes that we can collectively overcome the challenges that we face as a global community. To that end the Charter supports and is working to achieve the seventeen sustainable goals of the United Nations (September 2015), to be achieved by 2030. These goals are inclusive of all of life and of all people. For a video about the sustainable goals visit: http://wethepeople.globalgoals.org. Let’s walk the path of the global goals together! For further information visit: http://charterforcompassion.org
