Spiritual Care Sunday #19

Here's the last "Spiritual Care Sunday" as this is our last week of internship.... 

I heard this in a sermon recently about suffering and it reminded me of the work we have done and are continuing to learn to do in spiritual care:

May (they) shape a new space in your heart
to embrace (hardship) as a teacher
who has come to open your life to new worlds.
May you find in yourself a courageous hospitality
towards what is difficult, painful and unknown.
 
May you use (your hardship) as a lantern
to illuminate the new qualities that will emerge in you.
May your fragile harvesting of this slow light help you
release whatever has become false in you.
May you trust this light to clear a path
through all the fog of old unease and anxiety
until you feel a rising within you,
a tranquility profound enough to call the storm to stillness.
 
May you find the wisdom to listen to your (suffering)
ask it why it came,
why it chose your friendship,
where it wants to take you,
what it wants you to know,
what quality of space it wants to create in you,
what you need to learn to become more fully yourself,
that your presence may shine in the world.
(adapted from https://www.monkeyswithwings.com/cfsodonohue.html)