Donning the Law of the Day

Suffering with — feeling another's weight as weight, and moving because of it.

1. 01Feeling or showing sympathy and concern for another
2. 02From compati — to suffer with, to bear alongside
3. 03Moved by another's trouble to do something about it
4. 04Tender toward weakness without contempt for it
5. 05Merciful where she has the power to be otherwise
6. 06Able to feel a load she is not personally carrying
7. 07Kind in a costly rather than a convenient way
8. 08Slow to condemn what she has not stood inside of
9. 09Warm-hearted and practical at once
10. 10One whose sympathy reaches the hands

Compassion with responsibility attached — she does not only feel with, she takes charge of.

1. 01Displaying kindness and concern as a settled disposition
2. 02Taking responsibility for the wellbeing of another
3. 03Attentive to what a person actually needs, not what is easy to give
4. 04Bearing another in mind when they are not present
5. 05Watching over, keeping, tending
6. 06Invested in an outcome that costs her something
7. 07Willing to be inconvenienced for someone's good
8. 08Concerned enough to follow up
9. 09Nurturing — helping a thing grow rather than merely admiring it
10. 10Loyal in the ordinary, unwitnessed places

Caritas — love given as a nature, not an occasion. Generous in judgement as well as in goods.

1. 01Generous in giving to those in need
2. 02From caritas — costly love, love as a way of being
3. 03Lenient in judging others; assuming the better reading
4. 04Kind in a way that is structural, not occasional
5. 05Given to relieving want as a habit of the house
6. 06Benevolent — willing good for people who cannot repay
7. 07Liberal with what has been entrusted to her
8. 08Merciful toward the failure she could have punished
9. 09Devoted to a cause beyond her own increase
10. 10One whose giving has become an institution

To make lighter, freer, less painful. If it is not easing, it is not compassionate.

1. 01To make less severe, less difficult or less painful
2. 02To lighten a burden another is carrying
3. 03To free from constraint, pressure or hurry
4. 04To move a thing gently into place without force
5. 05To relieve — to take part of the weight
6. 06To soften a cost, a wait or a condition
7. 07To loosen what has been held too tight
8. 08To make a hard thing possible for someone
9. 09To bring quiet where there was strain
10. 10To give room, breath and time

To ask earnestly on behalf of — one who cares will entreat another. Easing is the hand; entreating is the voice.

1. 01To ask someone earnestly or anxiously to do something
2. 02To plead with, to beg on another's behalf
3. 03To make an appeal that carries feeling in it
4. 04From entraitier — to treat with, to deal with a person
5. 05To petition someone who has the power to help
6. 06To intercede — to stand between and speak
7. 07To press a request without demanding
8. 08To urge kindly and persistently
9. 09To seek favour for someone who cannot ask yet
10. 10To treat a person as worth speaking up for

To enter in and read from inside — feeling into, not merely feeling for.

1. 01To understand and share the feelings of another
2. 02From empatheia — feeling into, entering the state of
3. 03To stand inside another's position and read it accurately
4. 04To grasp what a thing costs the person paying it
5. 05To identify with without losing herself
6. 06To perceive the unspoken part of what was said
7. 07To respond to the real need rather than the stated one
8. 08To carry another's perspective faithfully in a room they are not in
9. 09To let understanding change the terms she offers
10. 10To know from within, and to act from that knowledge

What is already in her hand — given to her by another, by her own labour, or by God, and hers to hand on.

1. 01A thing presented or given, especially as an act of devotion
2. 02What is placed on the table for another to receive
3. 03A gift brought forward rather than kept back
4. 04From offerre — to bring before, to present
5. 05The portion set aside for a purpose beyond herself
6. 06What she has to work with, before she has earned more
7. 07Something entrusted to her hands to pass along
8. 08A contribution made without a demand attached
9. 09The first form of increase — one thing, given
10. 10Provision received, and therefore able to be shared

She is the offer. Not the gift in her hand — the thing itself that is on the table to be received.

1. 01That which is presented for acceptance or refusal
2. 02A proposal put forward to another party
3. 03What is on the table — the terms and the person behind them
4. 04An expression of readiness to give or to do
5. 05The thing available to be taken up
6. 06A bid — what she is willing to be for someone
7. 07Not the offering held out, but the one holding it out
8. 08Herself made available on purpose
9. 09The proposition a person can say yes to
10. 10Presence extended before payment is discussed

Plural now. The outlay of Day Twenty-Two comes back as offerings — many, in many hands, from many directions.

1. 01Gifts brought forward, many and from many
2. 02The plural of what she was handed on the first day of this law
3. 03What a charitable house generates rather than spends
4. 04The whole range of what she can now place on a table
5. 05Provisions gathered and given again
6. 06The return on an outlay laid down for someone else
7. 07Contributions multiplied through the hands she eased
8. 08What flows through an estate that empathizes
9. 09Many portions, each set aside for a purpose
10. 10Increase that arrives already given away