Both Uses

empathy
in
Nights in Rodanthe
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He would have made a good priest or minister, she'd often thought, and people who met him for the first time usually walked away with the impression that he was at peace with himself and the world, He was a gifted listener; with his chin resting in his hand, he never let his gaze stray from people's faces as they spoke, his expression mirroring empathy and patience, humor and sadness.†
Chpt 1

empathy = the ability or tendency to understand or share in others' feelings
It might have been the setting or the fact that she was alone; either way, the surge of empathy was a foreign sensation, one that caught him completely off guard.†
Chpt 5 *

Definitions:

(1) (empathy)
the ability, tendency, or act of understanding and sharing another's emotional state
(2) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)