Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread.

Our Reading titled The Skill of Compassion was written by Monica LaRose.

A thorn has entered your foot.

That is why you weep at times at night, wrote Catherine of Sienna in the

14th century. She continued, there are some in this world who can pull it out, the skill that takes

they have learned from God. Catherine devoted her life to cultivating that skill, and is still

remembered today for her remarkable capacity for empathy

and compassion for others in pain.

That image of pain as a deeply embedded thorn that requires tenderness and skill to remove

lingers with me.

It's a vivid reminder of how complex and wounded we are, and of our need to dig deeper to develop true

compassion for others and ourselves. Or, as the Apostle Paul describes it in the book of Romans,

it's an image that reminds us that loving others like Jesus does requires more than good

intentions and well wishes. It requires being devoted to one another,

joyful in hope, patient and affliction, faithful in prayer. It requires being willing to not only

rejoice with those who rejoice, but to mourn with those who mourn. It requires all of us. In a broken world, none of us escape unmooted.

Hurt and scars are deeply embedded in each of us. But deeper still is the love we find in Christ.

Love tender enough to draw out those thorns with a balm of compassion, willing to embrace both friend and enemy to find healing together.

Today's Our Daily Bread Devotional Scripture reading is from Romans chapter 12, verses 9 through 21.

Love must be sincere.

Hate what is evil.

Cling to what is good.

...