I was moved by the post “Com+passio” by fellow Beliefnet blogger Rod Dreher, in which he writes:

I’ve been reminded in the past couple of days how much intense suffering and grief we have around us. They’re going to have prayer meeting at Matthew’s school for the sake of a little girl from the school here in Dallas, Sydney Thweatt, who has been living in New York City for many months undergoing cancer treatment. The pain, physical and emotional, the disease is inflicting on that precious child and her family beggar belief. Here is the family’s website, in which they’re tracking her treatment and allowing those praying for Sydney, and for them, to stay abreast of her condition.

Yesterday I heard about a family at Matthew’s old school, a close-knit church school in Old East Dallas. A couple of years ago, the mom in the family died of breast cancer just as the school year was about to begin. And now we hear that a couple of days ago, a little boy in the family who attended the school had a gran mal seizure, and choked to death on his own vomit.
A couple of days ago I heard that an old friend in Oregon has been diagnosed with stomach cancer. She’s going to have to undergo intense chemotherapy and surgery, and faces long odds.
Please remember these people in your prayers. And if you like, please place your own prayer requests in the comboxes below. No arguments or controversies, please; just comments of support, and requests for prayers and good wishes for your own intentions.”Compassion” comes from the Latin words meaning “to suffer with.” Let’s take a moment from our blog debates to show compassion for these poor souls and for each other.

I like his idea of soliciting prayer requests on the message board. Click here to read the prayer requests on Rod’s post, or add your own in the comments of this post.