I posted my first blog at Womanspiritspeaks.com in September of 2020. Since that first posting, I have written and posted 131 blogs. Most of my themes have to do with finding wholeness within, balance, oneness, connection, and love. They are a call to find our connection to the Divine God/dess by going within and surrendering ourselves to the inner divine. They are a call away from the patriarchal, hierarchal religions to a more loving, compassionate inner source of divine love. They tell my story of how I have been led to a new way of living a spiritual life by recognizing that everything is sacred and that we are all connected in that sanctity.

After writing 131 blogs, my mind has hit a blank wall. However, as I read the week’s summary from Richard Rohr’s daily writings, I was compelled to share the meditation that was posted. I have been practicing and praying a version of this prayer for many years, but the meditation used in this particular way was new to me. While it is deceptively simple, I imagine that practicing it consistently will make a difference in how I relate to others. I give full credit to the Center for Action and Contemplation and to Sister Catherine Nerney.

                                    Compassion Meditation

Professor and Sister of St. Joseph Catherine Nerney shares a prayer practice that strengthens our compassion for ourselves, one another, and the world: 

We are called to be compassion for our world. But to grow in this capacity, we must practice, practice, practice the art of communicating from the heart where God and we are one. The Hindu blessing of Namaste, which has become universalized, reminds us that “when I am in that place of the Divine in me and you are in that place of the Divine in you, there is only one of us.”  

For this purpose, Thich Nhat Hanh and other Buddhist practitioners recommend that we regularly engage in a Compassion Meditation that is also known as metta or loving-kindness.… Take a few moments to let yourself be drawn into this contemplative practice for your good and others. Picture in your mind’s eye, try to encounter as vividly as possible, someone for whom you feel deep love and unity. Let him or her be there with you as you express these desires. 

May you be happy. 
May you be blessed. 
May you be free and peaceful. 
May you be ever loved. 
May you be always loving.

Now repeat the exercise, this time picturing someone you hardly know. Wish them the same loving desires. You may choose someone you saw on the bus, someone in the supermarket or a church group, or perhaps someone you’ve read about in the news. Make the image clear and pray for them as sincerely as you can. Your goal is to open to them/give them their humanity.  

Finally, repeat the visualization, selecting a person with whom you are feeling alienated, hurt, resentful, vengeful. What happens as you try to enter this “compassion meditation” with them?  

A fourth component of this compassion meditation that I think is often needed, if we are to become more compassionate listeners and speakers, is to offer this loving-kindness meditation for oneself. Self-compassion is essential to help us let go of shame that blocks God’s love and peace from mercifying us. From deep inside us, God is trying to get dug out. Listen to God trying to free you at the same time to love yourself.  

Catherine T. Nerney, The Compassion Connection: Recovering Our Original Oneness (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2018), 
184-185

Barbara Garland
June, 2023