April 10th Meeting Summary

 

Welcome, Introductions, and Blessing

• We welcomed newcomers on the screen, and all introduced themselves.

• We had several new Partners present, and each told us a bit about themselves and why compassionate work gave them hope.

• Carla Mae offered the prayers below and reviewed the place of emotional intelligence or compassion in the 'inner work' we need to do in order to offer compassion to anyone else.

• Several of our endorsers who are sustaining donors, offering $10-50 monthly to help Compassionate St. Louis pay its bills were present. We are most grateful to these dedicated people!

 

Prayer

Holy One,

Here we are, gathered like flowers in a garden.

What does Compassion look like ...in you...in me?

It has your hands...to reach out and help...

It has your feet...to go where you need to go...

It has eyes to see what is really going on...when you might want to look away...

It has ears to hear the groans and sighs of those who don't have strength to struggle any more...

It has a mouth to speak concern, and to offer a good word.

This is what compassion looks like.

 

Compassionate Integrity Training (CIT)

To give compassion to another, we need to begin with ourselves.

Unless we are doing our own 'inner work' we will not be able to give what we do not have.

 

Compassion is a form of emotional intelligence.

To understand it we need to know how our human consciousness works.

 

It operates in four steps...like a dance.

First, we Gather Data...from the world around us, from science, from economics, from religion, etc.

Second, we Question the Data for Meaning...we seek to understand it...

Third, we Reach Conclusions of Fact...about our understanding of the data...

Fourth, we Decide what to do or not do... about what we understand to be true about the data.

In between the third and fourth step our emotions indicate what is of value to us...

Then our actions reflect what we feel is important.

Compassion is a developed sense of the value of the suffering of others.

We feel impelled to do what we can to relieve that suffering.