In this episode, we reflect on how “humility and tenderness are not virtues of the weak but of the strong (Pope Francis)”. We discuss how we as Christians are called to cultivate a posture of humility and tenderness in a culture that is quick to criticize and condemn. We also chat about how often we forget that we belong to each other and end up picking sides, which results in more division and hostility than relationships that are filled with vulnerable love and truth. Today let us ask for the tenderness of God to be a gift that He gives us in our own hearts first, so that we can then give it to others.

 

Heather’s One Thing- Lessons from the School of love - Debbie and Peter Herbeck

Sister Miriam’s One Thing - Spicy Korean Style Gochujang Meatballs 

Michelle’s One Thing - The Olive Tree from Jackie Mulligan

 

Discussion Questions:

• What does it mean to receive the tender and compassionate love of the Lord?
• What does it mean to be tender to other people?
• What shuts down our sensitivity?
• How is God inviting you to receive and give His Tenderness?

 

Journal Questions:

• How can I grow in tenderness towards myself?
• How is God inviting me to show tenderness with the person I struggle with most?
• Where are the places in my heart where I have been hurt and allowed a coldness to enter my heart?
• Where in my life and my heart am I struggling to receive the Tenderness of God?

 

Quotes to Ponder:

I no longer need the armor, my softness is the strongest part of me. 

 - Brianna Wiest

 

The Heart of Christ is so great it wants to welcome us all into the revolution of tenderness. 

 - Pope Francis 

 

Tenderness is not a weakness. Tenderness is the path for the strongest, most courageous men and women. It is the path of humility. The more powerful you are, the more your actions will have an impact on the people. the more responsible you are to act humbly. If you don’t, your power will ruin you and you will ruin the other. Connect your power with humility and tenderness. 

 - Pope Francis 

 

Mary gave us a mother’s warmth, the warmth that shelters us amid troubles, the maternal warmth that keeps anything or anyone from extinguishing in the heart of the Church the revolution of tenderness inaugurated by her Son. Where there is a mother, there is tenderness. By her motherhood, Mary shows us that humility and tenderness are not virtues of the weak but of the strong. She teaches us that we do not have to mistreat others in order to feel important. 

 - Pope Francis 

 

The lack of physical (and not virtual) contact is cauterizing our hearts (cf. Laudato Si’, 49) and making us lose the capacity for tenderness and wonder, for pity and compassion. Spiritual orphanhood makes us forget what it means to be children, grandchildren, parents, grandparents, friends, and believers. It makes us forget the importance of playing, of singing, of a smile, of rest, of gratitude.

 - Pope Francis

Tenderness is the best way to touch the frailty within us. 

 - Pope Francis

 

Prayer: 

Saint Joseph, father in tenderness,

Teach us to accept that we are loved precisely in that which is weakest in us.

Grant that we may place no obstacle between our poverty and the greatness of God’s love.

Stir in us the desire to approach to Reconciliation,

That we may be forgiven and also made capable of loving tenderly our brothers and sisters in their poverty.

Be close to those who have done wrong and are paying the price for it.

Help them to find not only justice but also tenderness so that they can start again.

And teach them that the first way to begin again

Is to sincerely ask for forgiveness, to feel the Father’s caress.

Amen.

 

Scripture for Lectio: 

So he got up and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.

 - Luke 15:20

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