Journal of Sacred Work

Communion

Then he took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me." 20 And he did the same with the cup after supper, saying, "This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. Luke 22:19-20

   These words, spoken every day around the word, commemorate a ritual sacred to all Christians. It is the symbolic sacrifice of Jesus on our behalf - the body, the blood, our communion with Love. Almost always, there are at least two of us in this ceremony - one to give, the other to take. It is the original sacred encounter. And as this ritual is performed again on Palm Sunday, we may imagine this model for our lives. We give to others in need so that they may eat and drink God's Love...

Thoughts About Humility

Note: Today's Meditation was written by Catherine Self, a member of the Baptist Healing Trust team - Erie Chapman.

   I find that I write most often about the things I most need to practice in my life. Today’s meditation is no exception. That which does not live within cannot become reality.
   Saint Benedict, a young monk, lived in the sixth century, a time not unlike our own today – individuals focused on being successful, intent on getting ahead at all costs, doing what is right for self, attempting to control and manage all things, even time. Today we are cultivated to be independent and self-sufficient, especially in the United States. Our children are told over and over again that each one is special, deserving of great attention and fanfare. Everyone gets a trophy, everyone gets a fair share, and everyone gets to be first. Professionals in the mental health field refer to this burgeoning phenomenon as narcissism. Saint Benedict, however, understood life differently – he recognized the value of community and understood the essential need for humility as the basis for community. Humility makes it possible to see beyond self and to value the other... 

Seeing the Unseen

Note: The following Guest Meditation was written by Karen York, a Vice President with Alive Hospice in Nashville, Tennessee.

   In a world that pushes us from task to task, from list to list, from red-light to red-light, how do we prevent ourselves from being lulled into the mundane. What do you see on your way into work? Most of us take the same route day after monotonous day. When was the last time you took notice of the extraordinary? The life that exists just beyond our windshield is rich with complexity and grace. I began jotting down some things that I have observed on a 3-block stretch of road on my journey to work. I imagine what might be happening behind what I am seeing and offer this to you today:

...

The Peace of Wild Things

   While on vacation, instead of an original meditation I offer two gifts of wisdom from two great explorers of the soul. The first is from theologian Fredrick Boechner.

   "Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery that it is. In the boredom and the pain of it no less than the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace."

   The second is a poem from the great Wendell Berry called "The Peace of Wild Things." Berry speaks past the surface of our lives to our soul consciousness. He is not interested in our ego. He cares about our spirit... 

The Phases of Evening

if you like my poems let them
walk in the evening, a little behind you
-e.e. cummings

   I have written once before to you, many months ago, about the phases of the sunset, how the evening feels if we are present to her as day falls away. In Florida, where I worked for three years of my life, people pay more attention to the sunset than they do in most other parts of the country. Perhaps it's the presence of so much water that invites presence to evenings where poems walk a little behind us. My wife and I are lucky enough to vacation in a place that sees the ocean on one side and the intracoastal waterway on the other. Water lives all around us. On an evening of rest, we watched the sun collapse into the horizon...

Attitude & Meditation

Attitudes are more important than facts.
  - Karl Menninger

   So many of us live so much of our lives reacting the stunning array of stimuli that come from without. Yet it is what's going on within that shapes our truth. As Wayne Dyer writes at the beginning of his book, Your Sacred Self, "You have been facing the wrong way."  According to Dyer, "the door to higher awareness...opens inward."
   If this is true, why aren't all of us spending more of our lives exploring the mountains and valleys of our inner landscape...

The Practice of Presence

Note: Today's Meditation is written and edited by Catherine Self based on the writings of Erie Chapman on High Purpose Leadership and her own reflections. 

   Stop for a moment, right now. Are you awake? Are you truly alive to the present moment or did you begin reading this with thoughts of what you must do next…are you perhaps still thinking about a moment ago? Ask a group of people for a definition of presence and you will likely hear as many different responses as there are individuals in the group. For some, presence is being aware of the here and now. For others, presence is about paying attention...

Healing Hospital List 2006

A Healing Hospital* plants a culture of Radical Loving Care which pervades every aspect of the organization. - Erie Chapman 

   The staff of the Baptist Healing Trust is pleased to announce the list of hospitals which have qualified as Healing Hospitals for 2006. These organizations have developed cultures of Radical Loving Care characterized by an exceptional focus on caring for caregivers who in turn do an extraordinary job caring for patients.   
   This year, we are also in the process of developing a list of health care systems which have made a meaningful commitment to establishing cultures of Radical Loving Care throughout their organization.
   Since we have not, of course, been able to visit every hospital in the country, our analysis is based on information we believe reliably represents the loving care practices at the selected organization. Congratulations to the leadership of these organizations as well as to each and every caregiver who carries the golden thread of healing...

Greener Grass?

Note: The following meditation was written by Karen York, a Vice President at Alive Hospice in Nashville and a regular reader of the Journal. ALSO, be sure and see tomorrow's Journal for the 2006 list of America's Top 10 Healing Hospitals! - Erie Chapman, Editor

"The grass is always greener...

   Why do we always imagine that Joe & Sylvia down the street have a better life than we have? We watch as he drives his Porsche into his 3-car garage every night next to her Cadillac Escalade. Each week, the guys from “Pro-Lawn” manicure their crab-grass-free lawn and prune each hedge to exact dimensions. We imagine their home life as being filled with classical music, respectful teenagers, a chef who prepares gourmet meals, and Kiki, the Bison Frishe that not only doesn’t shed, bark, or chew, but won Best-in-Show at the Eukanuba dog show last year...

Touching the Earth

I like to touch the earth and smell her fragrance when I pray.     -Jorie West, from Native American Poetry

   Sometimes, statistics can illuminate fundamental changes in our human condition. In the time of our grandparents and great grandparents, most Americans lived on farms. Just a century ago, 42% of Americans were employed in agricultural work. And this number largely ignores women and children.
   But much of the western world has now turned its back on farming. By the year 2000, less than 2% of Americans were working the land for a living. If we have lost touch with the earth, what does this mean?...

Mandalas

 Note: The following meditation was written by Liz Wessel, R.N, M.S., Director of Education/Mission Services at St. Joseph Home Health Network. An example of one of Liz's mandalas, used as a Touch Card, appears at left .

   It was the summer of 1997; I frequented a used bookstore that seemed a rather magical place to me as I often found a special book to read as guide along my spiritual path. As I walked the narrow aisles and browsed books set upon musty old shelves, my eyes set upon a book by Carl Jung. I began thumbing through pages only to discover mandala images drawn by Jung’s patients. The written words were of no interest but the colorful drawings steeped in meaningful symbolism captured me. It was in that moment that I knew for certain drawing mandalas was to become part of my spiritual journey throughout my life...

Forgiveness & Grace

...this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.    - Luke 15:32

   In the course of revisiting the parable of the Prodigal Son (painting by Rembrandt) on this fourth Sunday in Lent, it's interesting to recall why Jesus told this story. He was speaking to a group that included "tax collectors and sinners." Nearby, Pharisees and scribes were critical. "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them." (Luke 15:2)
   Part of the question Jesus sought to address in his story was the question of how to treat sinners. It's a story that troubles many people today. Shouldn't we treat a responsible son better than his wastrel brother? Again, Jesus helps us understand the inclusiveness of love...

St. Patrick's Day Mandala

On Saint Patrick's Day, reader Liz Wessel has created a mandala to help our celebration. To learn more about mandalas, read her meditation on Monday, March 19.   

Prayer & Meditation

Note: Today's Meditation is written and edited by Catherine Self based on the writings of Erie Chapman (in quotes) on High Purpose Leadership and her own reflections.

    Quaker writer Richard Foster offers an invitation to a celebration of discipline. In our largely undisciplined and comfort-seeking culture, this is a radical call. Avoidance of discipline is but one symptom of our tendency toward instant gratification. Yet, it is in the practice of discipline that we may discover a path that brings us to true and lasting fulfillment. According to spiritual director Robert Mulholland, Jr., a balanced practice of discipline becomes a means for Love’s grace to reach out through us in service of others...

Things to Think

   The thought patterns of young children are free of the narrow pathways of an adulthood they have not yet experienced. Their minds are flexible enough so that they can accommodate fantasy and embrace it. Adults have a different enchantment. We are seduced by the things to which we are accustomed and our thoughts travel well-worn grooves. It is so difficult to change adult thought patterns that it often requires either a traumatic event or extended therapy to acquire a new way of thinking.
   The arts are a marvelous way to awaken our creative muscle from its atrophy. Poetry waits patiently for those willing to encounter its different ways. One of my favorite poets is Robert Bly. Here is the startling first stanza of his poem, "Things to Think"...

The Letting Go

Whatever he needs, he has or doesn't
have it now.
Whatever the world is going to do to him
it has started to do.             -Sharon Olds

   Years ago, my wife (left) wrote a poem about our son, our eldest child, and how he was beginning to leave us. I think she wrote it on the occasion of his departure for camp. But it could have been any number of other occasions because, from very early in their lives, our children begin to leave us, don't they?
   My wife's poem began, "Goodbye, you who are always leaving me..." That opening line has stayed with me through all the leave-takings of my life...

Touch Card Breakthroughs: Parrish Medical Center, Mercy Gilbert Hospital, St. Joe's Home Health

   How much difference can a tiny card make in the delivery of health services? Caregivers at Parrish Medical Center in Titusville, Fla, Mercy Gilbert Hospital in Arizona and St. Joseph Home Health Services in Southern California are finding out. Each organization has launched the Touch Card Program(tm) and each is meeting with instant success.
   Ideas like this work in Healing Hospitals and charities because the environments welcome innovation. Each organization has created their own example based on the same, core idea. At Mercy Gilbert, CEO Laurie Eberst handed the idea to her Chief Nursing Officer. Soon, a card like the one in the picture above emerged by the doorways of patient rooms. What a beautiful message to give to caregivers - to stop a moment and touch the card before washing their hands and entering the patient's room. To remember the sacred nature of work...

Chocolate Cookies

Note: The following meditation was written by Jason Dinger. Jason is a Vice President with Saint Thomas Health Services, Nashville, Tennessee. - Erie

   In this day and age it’s hard not to lead a busy life.
  Blackberry’s are no longer something you pick on a weekend excursion, but rather a tether to global movements and the growing demands of work. Our drives home are filled with traffic, smog, and people multitasking between their cell phones, radios, navigation systems, and DVD players. Our day crescendos with take out, hungry dogs, and hundreds of cable channels streamed directly to our consciousness. The listless sounds of newspaper pages have been changed to the clamor of keys and the morning drip of coffee has been overtaken by the chatter of a line at Starbucks.
   But we still have chocolate cookies...

Endurance

No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it. 1 Corinthians 10:13

   A dear friend is experiencing what we have described as his time as Job (painting of Satan Inflicting Boils on Job, by William Blake, 1757-1827). Psychologists periodically remind us, via talk shows and internet news, that stress is caused by our perception of loss. Among the top five causes of severe stress are 1) deaths of loved ones, 2) divorce, 3) illness or injury, 4) financial pressures, and 5) job loss. My friend is currently experiencing two of the top five and is on the edge of a third. He wonders if God will truly provide a way out.
   This third Sunday of Lent is an opportunity for us to ask ourselves if we believe the words of the apostle Paul in Corinthians. In our darkest hours, can we still hold hope that we will be able to endure life's hardest blows?... 

Positivity

Note: Today's Meditation is written and edited by Catherine Self based on the writings of Erie Chapman (in quotes) on High Purpose Leadership and her own reflections.

“We can all choose to have a good day or a bad day. Why would anyone choose to have a bad day?” – Rev. Norman Vincent Peale.

The questions came during an especially difficult and challenging time in my professional career: “Do we really believe we can ‘choose’ to have a good day? Harder yet, do we believe we can sustain that choice day after day, week after week?”…