One last thought on the wisdom of tenderness. I read this story and it really impacted me.
“In the winter of 1947, Abbe Pierre, known as the modern apostle mercy to the poor of Paris, found a young family almost frozen to death on the streets. He scooped them up and brought them back to his own poor dwelling, already crowded with vagrants. Where could he house them? After some thought, he went to the chapel, removed the blessed sacrament, and placed it upstairs in a cold, unheated attic Then he installed the family in the chapel to sleep for the night When his Dominican confreres expressed shock at some irreverence to the Blessed Sacrament, Abbe Pierre replied, “Jesus Christ isn’t cold in the Eucharist, but he is cold in the body of a little child.”
What traditions, what things are we holding on to that are keeping us from reaching people for Christ? Do we value what is valuable to God?