Children
Learn What They Live
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What is compassion?
What does it mean to you?
Another level of
compassion is reached when you extends yourself to
help those who are in need. We often are invited to
participate in an organized effort through school or
religious organizations-a food drive at Thanksgiving
or a toy drive at Christmas. Hopefully we are happy to
participate in this type of sharing, for we recognize
we have more than enough food and toys at home and it
is not hard for us to understand how sad it is that
someone might not have enough. We are not sacrificing
anything, and we enjoy the feeling of goodwill that
results when we join together with others in giving.
We should be sure to take advantage of such
opportunities to learn the joy of sharing with those
in need.
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"Why
Compassion"
When children grow up in a
family where compassion is a way of life, they
experience the importance, as well as the joy, of
compassion. As they become teenagers, they begin to
understand the kind of compassion that parenting
involves. At that point, they begin to give back a
bit.
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"Why Generosity and
Service"
True generosity implies an
open hearted willingness to give freely, without
thought of personal gain or return. It means we give
because someone has a need, and we care about them.
Sacrifice or inconvenience may be involved, but we
don't see it as a loss since this kind of sharing and
service is inherently rewarding.
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CHRISTIANITY
Casting the First Stone
Jesus was at the Temple. A crowd soon
gathered, and he sat down and talked to them. As he was speaking, the
Jewish leaders and Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery and
placed her out in front of the starting crowd. "Teacher," they said
to Jesus, "this woman was caught in the very act of adultery. Moses'
law says to kill her. What about it?"
They were trying to trap him into saying
something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and
wrote in the dust with his finger. They kept demanding an answer, so
he stood up again and said, "All right, hurl the stones at her until
she dies. But only he who never sinned may throw the
first!"
Then he stooped down again and wrote some
more in the dust. And the Jewish leaders slipped away one by one,
beginning with the eldest, until only Jesus was left in front of the
crowd with the woman.
Then Jesus stood up again and said to
her, "Where are your accusers? Didn't even one them condemn you?"
"No, sir," she said.
And Jesus said, "Neither do I. go and sin
no more."
MOTHER TERESA
(1910-1997)
Born in Skopje, Yugoslavia, as Agnes
Gonxha Bojaxhiu, she was the youngest of three children born to an
Albanian couple. Her mother was a devout Catholic and took her young
daughter with her on visits to the sick and the needy. After
prayerful consideration, Agnes decided "to go out and give the life
of Christ to the people;" she was twelve years old. She joined the
sisters of Loreto and let for Calcutta in 1929. she taught high
school until 948, learning both Bengali and Hindi during this time.
Agnes took her first vows of poverty, chastity and obedience in 1931,
selected Teresa as her name and took her final vows in 1937. In 1946
she received a call to help the poor and formed the Missionaries of
Charity in 1950. She added a fourth vow to the traditional three; "to
give wholehearted, free service to the very poorest." Her work in the
slums of Calcutta led to the awarding to the Nobel Peace Prize in
1979. She possessed a serene spirituality, a sense of joyful
compassion, and a reverence for human life. She wrote, "We can do no
great things, only small things with great
love."
The test of our progress
is not whether we add more to the abundance of those
who have much; it is whether we provide enough for
those who have too little. - Franklin D.
Roosevelt
Life is like a tennis
game. You can't win without serving. - Arthur
Ashe
It is when you give of
yourself that you truly give. - Kahlil
Gibran
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PUT COMPASSION INTO
ACTION
- Be friendly to someone
who needs a friend.
- Do helpful things at
home without being asked.
- Be generous with your
time and your belongings.
- Create and participate
in a litter control program at your
school.
- Pick up litter,
wherever you are, instead of walking past
it.
- Plan and participate
in a a canned food collection for a local
charity.
- Look for ways to help
in any situation without being
asked.
- Put someone else's
needs before your own.
- Look for ways to help
someone in the community.
- Try to understand why
a family member is sad.
- Forgive someone who
has hurt you.
- Talk with your family
about the problems of the homeless. Find a way to
help.
- Try to understand
someone you disagree with or don't
like.
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COMMUNITY SERVICE
IDEAS
- Recycle aluminum cans.
Put the money earned into a local food
bank.
- Collect food for a
local food bank.
- Offer to help an
elderly neighbor with their yard work; get a friend
to help you.
- Take a meal to someone
who is ill.
- Volunteer with the Red
Cross or another similar
organization.
- Volunteer at a local
hospital or senior center. Help the elderly with
shopping errands, or chores.
- Replace the signs
about responsibility that you hung last month in
your town with new signs reminding everyone to be
compassionate toward each other.
- Write a letter of
compassion to a victim of some recent tragedy. If
this person as suffered a serious material loss,
collect some of the lost items and send along with
your letter (for example, flood victims might need
clothes, shoes, a radio, etc.)
- Create a school
bulletin board where students and teachers can
recognize people within the school who have
demonstrated great compassion.
- Choose a historical
figure who represents compassion. Write your own or
find in the library a short play which tells about
this person's compassionate acts. Perform the play
for your community. Donate the proceeds to a local
shelter for the homeless or other charity which you
feel demonstrates compassion in its everyday
work.
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SONG OF THE
MONTH
Once again this year we will be
writing a song of the month to go along with our value of the
month. We will be starting with the fifth grade and working our
way down to the first grade.
NOVEMBER - COMPASSION
The song of the month for October was
written by the fourth graders in Room 14. It is sung to the melody
of YANKEE DOODLE.
Compassionate is the way to
be,
Generous and helpful.
Be a volunteer and
serve
People who are needy.
Everyone can volunteer.
Everyone can share.
Be generous with all your
heart
'Cause everyone can
care.
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