Remember this tune?
“What the world needs now, is love, sweet love… It’s the only thing… that
there’s just too little of…What the world needs now… is love, sweet love…No, not just
for some, but for everyone.”
Written by songwriters Brett James and Mary Holladay Lamar, this popular tune was sung out to
the world by Jackie DeShannon and Dionne Warwick about 50-or-so years ago.
Yet, how very appropriate for today! I’m feeling like “what the world needs now” is less love of power and more power of love!!
I completely agree with Joyce Rupp, (Boundless Compassion: Creating a Way of Life. 2018) that,
“In today’s society it often seems as if cruelty is more extensive than kindness.” She is “right on” when
she describes our local, national and global situations as “broken, wounded, violent, damaged, divisive.”
Rupp claims, “Only with compassion at the core of humanity’s lived experience will we be able
to approach one another with true respect and dwell in peacefulness.”
In her book, Rupp shares her own insights and those from dozens of wisdom figures, like Henry
Nouwen, Mahatma Gandhi, the Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, Pope Francis, Ilia Delia, O.S.F., Christina
Feldman, Diane Millis, and Sharon Salzberg, to name but a few.
Using Rupp’s Boundless Compassion: Creating a Way of Life, as resource for learning and
prayerful reflection, we will come together for 6 weekly “compassionate conversations” in Loyola
Spirituality Center’s library, from April 23-May 28, from 10:30am-12:00noon, to consider our own
awareness and understanding of compassion. Each week we will listen, ponder and share together in
group how selected readings touched our hearts.
Compassion Reimagined with Reflection and Conversation
Spring weekly Book Study: Joyce Rupp. Boundless Compassion: Creating a Way of Life. (2018)
Wednesdays. 10:30am to 12:00pm. April 23-May 28, 2025
Loyola Spirituality Center Library
Facilitator: Susanna Bertelsen
Topics to be covered include: “compassion as a way of life,” “welcoming ourselves,” “the river of
suffering,” “from hostility to hospitality,” “a thousand unbreakable links,” and “becoming a
compassionate presence.”
Are you also feeling like “what the world needs now” is less love of power and more power
of love? Might this be an opportunity for you to deepen your spiritual practice, or, might this be an
invitation to create a more “compassionate” way of life? Come join us!
Questions: Susanna@LoyolaSpiritualityCenter.org
More information and Register here Suggested weekly donation – $15 per week or $85 for all six weeks.
Book available at Ave Maria Press or at Amazon
