Relationship of compassion, peace, and prayer.

True love is compassion. You can be concerned for the life of another yet not be compassionate. You can work for another's benefits yet have no compassion. You can spend days in great effort to make another's life more pleasant and yet have no compassion. Much compassion, much of what is done in life is done out of a feeling of duty motivated by guilt. There is no compassion in duty so motivated. Compassion is never generated through guilt or a feeling of necessity.

Compassion cannot be held back—it pours forward. Compassion is a very natural outpouring of the soul. When you respond with compassion to another, it is automatic; it pours out. It is not planned; it is spontaneous in all respects.

To be compassionate necessitates peace within. Peace within is achieved through prayer. It is that state of peace allowing a compassionate response to another which serves as a clear window for your soul's natural response to the constant presence of God.

So it is peace that comes first, but it is love which is the response. All begins with prayer.