January 15, 2021

“Kindness is a beautiful human attribute. When we say, “She is a kind person,” or “He was kind to me,” we express a very warm feeling. In our competitive and often violent world, kindness is not the most frequent response. But when we encounter it we know what we are blessed. Is it possible to grow in kindness, to become a kind person?

Yes but it requires discipline. To be kind means to treat another person as your “kin,” your intimate relative. We say “We are kin,” or “He is next of kin. “To be kind is to read out to someone as being of “kindred spirit.”

So here is a great challenge. All people, whatever their color, religion, or sex, belong to humankind and are called to be kind to one another, treating one another as brothers and sisters. There is hardly a day in our lives in which we are not called to do this.”

-Henri Nouwen, Bread For The Journey.