Quotes about Empathy

Our tendency in the midst of suffering is to turn on God. To get angry and bitter and shake our fist at the sky and say, "God, you don't know what it's like! You don't understand! You have no idea what I'm going through. You don't have a clue how much this hurts." The cross is God's way of taking away all of our accusations, excuses, and arguments. The cross is God taking on flesh and blood and saying, "Me too.

But the true emperor, Luke insists, is not the one who feeds himself but who is willing to offer his life as food for the other. At the climax of his life, this child, come of age, would say to his friends, "This is my body, which will be given for you' do this in memory of me" (Lk 22:19).

scapegoaters, but rather on the side of the scapegoated victim.

scapegoaters, but rather on the side of the scapegoated victim.

The successful evangelist does not stand aloof from the experience of sinners, passing easy judgment on them, praying for them from a distance; on the contrary, she loves them so much that she joins them and deigns to walk in their shoes and feel the texture of their experience.

Cherish the friend who tells you a harsh truth, wanting ten times more to tell you a loving lie.

There is an instinct in a woman to love most her own child — and an instinct to make any child who needs her love, her own.

I like friends who, when you tell them you need a moment alone, know enough not to stray too far.

I nod to a passing stranger, and the stranger nods back, and two human beings go off, feeling a little less anonymous.

Love thy neighbor, and if it requires that you bend your understanding of the truth, the Truth will understand.

Sometimes it is the person closest to us who must travel the furthest distance to be our friend.

To truly forgive is to allow the other person to forget.