Compassion is a piece of vocabulary that could change us if we truly let it sink into the standards to which we hold ourselves and others.

Structure is something that calms our nature; we know this of toddlers.

Compassion is a spiritual technology.

For every shrill and violent voice that throws itself in front of microphones and cameras in the name of God, there are countless lives of gentleness and good works who will not. We need to see and hear them, as well, to understand the whole story of religion in our world.

Compassion is a piece of vocabulary that could change us if we truly let it sink into the standards to which we hold ourselves and others.

Fear usually looks like anger.

Compassion also brings us into the territory of mystery - encouraging us not just to see beauty, but perhaps also to look for the face of God in the moment of suffering, in the face of a stranger, in the face of the vibrant religious other.