November 8, 2025

Dear Friends,

We began a one-year observance of our twenty-fifth anniversary on September 8, 2025. It will conclude on September 8, 2026. 

As part of our observance, we began, on September 21, 2025, a year of reflections on the heart of the Interfaith Peace Project – the Interpath Principles. The reflections are being sent to you on the eighth and twenty-first of each month. If you would like to view the previous reflections, you can find them on our blog at: interfaithpeaceproject.org.

If you have anything that you would like to share, please contact:

Thomas P. Bonacci, C.P.
[email protected]
925-787-9279

THE INTERFAITH PEACE PROJECT
A Legacy of Peace-Making for Twenty-Five Years
September 8, 2001 – September 8, 2026
COMPASSIONATE CARE
PART TWO

The First Interpath Principle:

We humbly commit ourselves to be people of
compassionate love and care.

Imagine a world where people engaged one another with compassion, respect, and radical openness. The First Principle of the Interfaith Peace Project strives to practice the radical openness necessary to truly meet another person. This radical openness is realized when we seek to care for one another in ways respectful and caring.

According to the many definitions of “care”, seeing another person as important is crucial. Every person who comes into our lives is important. As such, every encounter invites us to a greater consciousness, a deeper presence, in a cherished moment. 

Let us consider several aspects of compassionate care in light of what has been stated so far.

By entering deeply into another person’s presence, we express gratitude for the moment of encounter. The importance of the moment reveals the preciousness of the person with whom we share. Our respect for our companion invites us to be receptive to their presence, informed by their sharing, and transformed by our listening to one another. We listen to the soul of our companion. Cari Jackson writes, “When we ‘listen another person’s soul into life,’ we foster greater experience of the divine power within others and ourselves.”  

The heartfelt respect we have for our companion opens our hearts and minds to learning from them, being receptive to their wisdom, and welcoming their presence. Respect gives birth to dialogue. The dialogue runs deep into the fibers of our sharing as we are experiencing a rebirth in the presence of one another. Compassionate care is now a mutual experience, and we are the better for it. We engage one another in dialogue as we share our life experiences without judgment. The dialogue deepens, especially in the moments of silence when hearts touch.

Ultimately, this mutual care for one another enables us to see and experience the world through the minds, hearts, and souls of one another. We become companions of one another as we journey on the pathways of life. Recall the words of Henry David Thoreau, “Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other’s eyes for an instant?”

Blessings to you, Beloved Community, for striving to see the world through the eyes of the people you meet. This is the compassionate care capable of transforming the world.