Walking Gently: A Chapel Reflection on Compassion

In February, our community gathered in St. Mary’s Chapel to reflect on compassion as a daily practice rooted in presence, humility, and care for one another. Green paraments marked this season of ordinary time, inviting us to focus on the sacred work of everyday life.

Through music, prayer, and readings from Henri Nouwen, Barbara Brown Taylor, and the Gospel of Luke, we were reminded to stay awake to what is unfolding around us and to lift our hearts rather than let them grow heavy. Compassion is not sentiment. It is action. It is choosing gentleness. It is trusting that grace, as Pope Francis writes, is “the amount of light in our souls.”

Chaplain Barksdale’s reflection, Take Heart, centered on a simple fable. A boy proudly displayed his flawless heart until he met an elder whose heart was rough and scarred, pieces missing and others stitched in. The elder explained that each scar marked love given, and each added piece represented love received. A perfect heart, untouched and unshared, had not yet learned compassion. Moved, the boy tore off a piece of his own heart and gave it away. In doing so, he began to understand that hearts become more beautiful when they are shared.

Each person’s chapel bulletin included a beautifully crafted heart made by our student bookmaking class for this special occasion.  Chaplain Barksdale invited us to hold up our hearts, whole and unmarked, noticing their perfect designs, then to notice the hearts held by our neighbors.  

As a sign of our willingness to give and receive compassion, we were encouraged to tear off a piece of our heart and place it in a basket as we exited the chapel. Those fragments were reassembled into one large heart by our Spiritual Life League. This masterful HEART ART display now hangs in Dabney Hall as a visible reminder that community is built when we offer parts of ourselves to one another.

The message was clear and profound. Live the life you have been given. Share your heart. Take risks, forgive freely, welcome the stranger, and be patient and kind. The miracle is not extraordinary. It is learning to walk this earth together with open hearts.