St George's Cathedral, Cape Town
AUGUST 2005 –
MONTH OF COMPASSION AT ST GEORGE'S CATHEDRAL
Three passions have governed my life:
the longings for love, the search for knowledge,
and unbearable pity for the suffering of humankind.
Love brings ecstasy and relieves loneliness.
In the union of love I have seen
in a mystic miniature the prefiguring vision
of the heavens that saints and poets have imagined.
With equal passion I have sought knowledge.
I have wished to understand the hearts of people.
I have wished to know why the stars shine.
Love and knowledge led me upwards to the heavens,
but always pity brought me back to earth;
cries of pain reverberated in my heart
of children in famine, of victims tortured
and of old people left helpless.
I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot,
and I too suffer.
This has been my life; I found it worth living.
Bertrand Russell
SUNDAY 7
Transfiguration
19th Sunday of the Year
Come down from the mountain!
Bring a sandwich
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MONDAY 8
Call Mr Ball at
The Carpenter's Shop
021 461 5508 and ask how the shelter for homeless adults
is doing
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TUESDAY 9
Say something to a homeless child on the street
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WEDNESDAY 10
At supper with your family suggest that you don't turn your heaters on this evening and put R20 in an envelope marked COMPASSION
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THURSDAY 11
Ask a homeless child on the street to tell you something about
him- or herself.
Pray for homeless children
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FRIDAY 12
The number of rooms in your house, + the windows + the doors ÷ 2 and place the answer in Rands in your COMPASSION envelope
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SATURDAY 13
Make a sandwich!
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Pray for the poor and those without homes
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SUNDAY 14
Blessed Virgin Mary
20th Sunday of the Year
Hear God's word and obey it!
Bring a sandwich
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MONDAY 15
St Mary the Virgin
Write down the names of the countries in Africa where there is war or civil unrest
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TUESDAY 16
Write down the names of countries in the rest of the world and add them to the list you made on Monday. Remember the total number
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WEDNESDAY 17
At supper mention the number of countries in your list. Pray for peace. Divide your list by 2 and put so many Rands in your COMPASSION envelope
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THURSDAY 18
Ask someone you know why they think there is so much war, violence and terror in the world today.
Pray for our world
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FRIDAY 19
Ask a colleague at work or a friend in school what she or he thinks the two of you can do to make a difference and work to bring peace
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SATURDAY 20
Bernard of Clairvaux
Make a sandwich!
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Pray for our world at risk of violence, terror and war; and for justice, freedom and peace
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SUNDAY 21
21st Sunday of the Year
Who do you say I am?
Bring a sandwich
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MONDAY 22
St Mary the Virgin
HIV&AIDS is about health and sex and poverty. Talk to someone older or younger about this
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TUESDAY 23
Call Kate Gray at KIDA POSITIVE 021 671 2904 and ask how the Family Fund is doing
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WEDNESDAY 24
Bartholomew
At supper + everyone's age ÷ by the number in your family. Put so many Rands into COMPASSION envelope
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THURSDAY 25
Find out how many SA children have died of HIV&AIDS. Give thanks for life. Pray that all children may enjoy it.
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FRIDAY 26
Call Frank Molteno 021 762 4220 to learn about the Cathedral HIV&AIDS Task Team and offer to help
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SATURDAY 27
Make a sandwich!
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Pray for those living with HIV&AIDS
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SUNDAY 28
22nd Sunday of the Year
Take up your cross and follow me!
Bring a sandwich
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MONDAY 29
Beheading of St John the Baptist
What do you know about TIK, gangsters and school violence in Cape Town?
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TUESDAY 30
Talk to someone older or younger about why and how people become addicted
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WEDNESDAY 31
At supper+ monthly entertainment and luxuries ÷ by number in your family. Add the Rands to your envelope |
I am my brothers' and sisters' keeper,
and they're sleeping pretty rough
these days.
Archbishop Derek Worlock
Bring your COMPASSION ENVELOPE
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Pray for those caught in the grip of addiction
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I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me. Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.
Matthew 25:35–40
You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.
Kahlil Gibran, poet
Hungry not only for bread – but hungry for love.
Naked not only for clothing – but naked for human dignity and respect.
Homeless not only for want of a room of bricks – but homeless because of rejection.
Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fibre of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.
Franklin D. Roosevelt:, 32nd President of the USA
How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and the strong. Because someday in life, you will have been all of these.
George Washington Carver, African-American Scientist
Life's most urgent question is, what are you doing for others?
Martin Luther King, Jr:, African-American Pastor and Civil Rights Leader
Compassion is sometimes the fatal capacity for feeling what it is like to live inside somebody else's skin. It is the knowledge that there can never really be any peace and joy for me until there is peace and joy finally for you too.
Frederick Beuchner, American Pastor and author
The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all living things, which are all part of one another, and all involved in one another.
Thomas Merton, Christian Monk and author
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