Compagination
I try to learn something new every day and last week I hit a winner – a new word. Compagination! It comes from joining compassion with imagination. Now that’s a change we could all do with. Compassion – it is so nice, so good, so boring. Imagination – so light, so full of possibility, yet often useless and wasteful. But put the two together and what do you have: doing good for others that brings joy to them and oneself. I think this is how Jesus must have lived. The Gospels are clear that ordinary people, as well as sinners and outcasts, flocked to him. They enjoyed his stories, they enjoy his presence, they enjoyed the way he treated them. They enjoyed his compagination. Once I thought about how this could work in situations that I routinely have to deal with, I found my heart lifting. So I suggest to you now, think of a person to whom you have to be kind. Now how could you do that imaginatively? Enjoy!
Loving God, kindness and compassion can often feel so boring and stifling. Send us the wisdom of your Spirit that we may love like Jesus is a way that is freeing and joyful. We ask this in his name confident that you will hear us.
Sr Kym Harris osb