As part of my training for the priesthood, I completed a summer course as a hospital chaplain. Every day in the hospital, I met new people and got swept up in the intense emotions of their encounters with illness and healing. At the end of the summer, a friend made this little image of me praying as part of a farewell gift. Where I felt overwhelmed and inexperienced, she saw me as centered and peaceful, able to nurture the patients and my fellow chaplains. Her gift helped me see myself and my work in a new way.
Sometimes God sends people into our lives to be mirrors, reflecting back to us the amazing possibilities of our souls. Today I thank God for all my companions on the journey, and I pray for the grace to be a true mirror of God's love, showing my brothers and sisters how beautiful they are in God's sight.
I think this is my favorite of your posts thus far. Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us this season!
ReplyDeleteI was away for several days, so I am catching up on your postings. I think I miss the nursing I did. Ill people present challenges to all of us. Even after 40 years, I would have a challenging patient that I would pray to God that I would say the right things and give the comforting hopes to my patient's parents.
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