When I experience God's non-judgmental and loving acceptance of myself in prayer, I am called to extend these same identifying features of compassion to others. When I remember that God tolerates and forgives the smelliness of my own faults and failings, I am more ready to accept what I find disdainful in others. The more I know my own great need for the embrace of a merciful, forgiving God, the more I can be forgiving and merciful to those who wound me. The more I truly believe the Holy One loves and accepts me as I am, while longing for me to be all I can be, the more I will gather to my heart all who are part of this vast world of ours.
— Joyce Rupp, Prayer