Our Founder

Joyce Rupp

Joyce Rupp is a beloved writer and spiritual guide. She is the author of numerous bestselling books, including Boundless Compassion: Creating a Way of Life, Prayers of Boundless Compassion, and The Boundless Compassion Journal. Joyce began her leadership journey with Boundless Compassion in 2006 when she recognized a deep desire to develop and teach an integrated program about compassionate living.

Joyce has led retreats throughout North America, as well as in Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and New Zealand. Joyce has a B.A. in English, a M.R.E. in Religious Education, and a M.A. in Transpersonal Psychology. She is a member of the Servites (Servants of Mary) community and was a volunteer for Hospice for fifteen years. She currently resides in Des Moines, Iowa.

 “When I gaze back at my life, I marvel at its surprising unfolding. In my younger years I never imagined how the Spirit would stir and inspire the founding and development of a program centered on compassion. I look with wonder at how it has expanded and enriched many because of how you joined with me in this endeavor.” ~ Nov 2021

“Compassion is a way of life - an inner posture of how to be with suffering, both our own and others, and a desire to move that attitude into action. Compassion involves an ‘inside-out’ movement. A radical change unfolds in us when compassion becomes a way of life, a transformation as far-reaching as an acorn growing into a tree, an egg producing a chicken, or a caterpillar metamorphosing into a butterfly.”

— Joyce Rupp in Boundless Compassion: Creating a Way of Life