Alleluia! new life has begun

'Resurrection' from icon in the Chapel of Christ the Healer,
Cork University Hospital

Alleluia! is the clarion call in Easter.

It shouts out the joy and thrill of new life. As a word it is bursting with hope, victory and newness. When sung it reverberates deep within us as we literally embody the word.

In a hospital environment it is a feeling experienced when we receive good news, when we receive results that an illness or a disease has been cured; that a treatment or surgery has been successful. It is a feeling that many survivors of cancer long to feel when the dreaded 5 year check-up looms.

For Christians, Easter Day is the day that brings hope that pain, suffering -even death- is transformed by God in Christ.
Now, there is nothing that cannot be transformed and healed even when physical cure is not possible. This is good news indeed.

Alleluia! Christ is Risen.

Paschal Moon: Cosmic Significance

The date of Easter moves each year. Many say that it would make more sense for the date to be fixed in the same way that Christmas is. However, the fact that the date is set on the cycles of the moon and nature speaks in an overwhelming way of the cosmic significance of what we celebrate tonight.

Every time I attend the Easter Vigil, I take a few moments to savour the full circled 'Paschal Moon' and marvel. As we lit the paschal fire outside our hospital tonight to bring the light into the chapels the long night of waiting and darkness brightened by the unassuming light that simply is.

Alleluia! Christ is Risen

The Paschal Candle at the
Chapel of Christ the Healer tonight

Visiting the grave: reality sets in

Today in our Holy Week journey we find ourselves in that strange zone that grieving families experience when everyone has gone home after a funeral and somehow while their lives go on, we are left trying to make sense of what has just happened. It is a numbed place where the reality of the death of a loved one begins to set in. The pain that was somehow numbed by the funeral, the presence of loved ones, the cards, the sympathy now begins to wear off and the reality of the rest of our lives without the person we love begins. They are gone. We miss them.

A visit to a grave the day after a funeral is a sobering experience. Seeing the mound of clay clung like a mounded and body-shaped blanket over the place that yesterday was a hole into which our loved one was laid makes it so real that this is indeed reality. 'Earth to earth, ashes to ashes...'

This photograph is of my father's grave the day after his funeral: his birthday is today...

Today, Easter Eve, there is a strange 'nothingness' as we reflect on the enormity of what God has given to us by sharing the most painful experience of death to give us hope...

And so until tomorrow... we wait...

Almighty God,
your son through his death and burial
hallowed the grave.
Be with us as now we journey on in the hope of resurrection.
Be our companion and our guide.

May we live by faith, walk in hope and be renewed in love,
until the world reflects your glory
and you are all in all.Amen 
(adapted from the Book of Common Prayer,  ©RCB 2004)

Good Friday: Join us for prayer by Twitter and SMS from 19:30 GMT

Join us this evening for our live tweet Taizé Prayer around the Cross as we pray for all who carry the cross of illness.

Please send a tweet to @goodfridaycuh and use hashtag #goodfridaycuh 

or send a SMS text to +353873939142 

before or during the service to be included in the prayers.

Many names have been sent to us already and we will include them all. If you are in the hospital you can also use the small cards provided to write the first name of someone for prayer and place in the basket in the chapel.

Eternal God,
in the cross of Jesus
we see the cost of our sin
and the depth of your love:
in humble hope and fear
may we place at his feet
all that we have and all that we are,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen 

 -from Times and Seasons

We adore you O Christ and we bless you for by your cross you have redeemed the world.

Maundy Thursday: loving the dirty, smelly parts of me too.

Food is essential to human life and wellbeing. When our insides, our guts, let us down, food can become be hard to stomach -often literally. The pain associated with a diseased gut can have us writhing. A very powerful and external manifestation of when our gut lets us down is when things get so bad that a colostomy is the treatment. 

We don't find it easy to talk about such things which adds to the stigma of now having to handle in a new way what we rarely have to face head-on -our faeces. It takes a lot of getting to used to. Our faeces now leaves our body through our abdomen and is collected in a bag. 

It can have an enormous impact on our sense of being, our sexuality, our desirability, our body image, our confidence. Today as we hear again the story of Jesus washing the disciples' feet let us give thanks for all our bodily functions. As Christ washed dirty, dusty feet so too today if you feel undesirable and self-conscious, feel the embrace and love of the God who adores you: all of you.

Heavenly Father,

your Son washed the feet of his friends,

help me to feel your warm and tender embrace today.

Help me to love my body even when it lets me down.
Even in illness your image shines from deep within me. Awesome! Amen


This reflection is to accompany the spiritual space and Lenten Reflection at the Chapel of Christ the Healer, Cork University Hospital.

If you are in the chapel when you click on this page please feel free to add your prayer to the prayer card on the altar.

If you would like us to pray for you at our Taizé Service of Prayer around the Cross, tomorrow,  Good Friday at 7:30pm please send an email to daniel.nuzum@hse.ie or tweet to @goodfridaycuh and use hash tag #goodfridaycuh or send a SMS to +353 87 3939142If you live in the locality of CUH you can listen in and join us for worship through hospital radio on CUH102FM

Wednesday in Holy Week: betrayed by our own cells

In our Bible reading today we hear of the betrayal of Jesus by Judas, one of his close group, 'one of his own'. You can read the story from John's Gospel by clicking here.

When our cells mutate to become cancerous it can feel like a huge betrayal. A betrayal of something that should by its very nature work with us and for us.

Why would or should one of our own cells turn from working with and for us to be so virulently against us and try to take us over?

There is something very frightening about cells that turn cancerous. These are cells that cannot even be seen by the naked eye and yet they can topple our bodies from health to despair. All can seem well on the outside and yet deep within destruction can be at work.

Going for a biopsy to test for cancer brings us into a place where we realise that there are many things we cannot control in life. The picture above shows a slide of cancerous cells on the left as seen through a microscope.

Dear Lord,
every cell in my body needs to work together in harmony to keep me well.
Help me to appreciate every cell of my body.
When cells let me down and I feel betrayed
help me to lean on your love where you care for every part of my wellbeing. Amen

This reflection is to accompany the spiritual space and Lenten Reflection at the Chapel of Christ the Healer, Cork University Hospital.

If you are in the chapel when you click on this page please feel free to add your prayer to the prayer card on the altar.

If you would like us to pray for you at our Taizé Service of Prayer around the Cross on Good Friday at 7:30pm please send an email to daniel.nuzum@hse.ie or tweet to @goodfridaycuh and use hash tag #goodfridaycuh or send a SMS to +353 87 3939142
If you live in the locality of CUH you can listen in and join us for worship through hospital radio on CUH102FM

Tuesday in Holy Week: Save me from this suffering

Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane prayed that the cup of suffering might be taken from him. A very human response to an overwhelming pain that he was enduring. And yet deep down he knew that there was no way around what was a path of suffering but only a way through.

The diagnosis of illness can bring us to a 'Garden of Gethsemane' experience where we want to bargain with God to find an easier way. Yet, we know deep down, like jesus did, that there is usually no way around but only a way through. A way through that we somehow find the strength to accomplish despite the odds and our human fears.  While we may hold our hands up to our face to block the view ahead we know that it also opens our eyes to see that there is no other way but to journey on.

Dear Lord,

like you I want this cup of suffering to pass from me

yet I know that I must journey through.

be my companion, my strength and my guide

and walk beside me all the way. Amen.

This reflection is to accompany the spiritual space and Lenten Reflection at the Chapel of Christ the Healer, Cork University Hospital.

If you are in the chapel when you click on this page please feel free to add your prayer to the prayer card on the altar.

If you would like us to pray for you at our Service of Prayer around the Cross on Good Friday at 7:30pm please send an email to daniel.nuzum@hse.ie or a tweet to @goodfridaycuh and use #goodfridaycuh or a SMS to +353 87 3939142
If you live in the locality of CUH you can listen in and join us for worship through hospital radio on CUH102FM

Monday in Holy Week: fragrant love & anointing. Thank God for our feet

Our feet are often the most neglected parts of our bodies (especially for men!) and yet they carry our complete load and are our connection with the earth beneath us. Each of our feet has 26 bones, 33 joints and more than 100 muscles, tendons and ligaments. They are complex parts of our body that we are unaware of most of the time unless they become strained or damaged. As we wear shoes most of the time we have lost their sense of connectedness with the earth beneath us. We have lost the sense of how our feet connect us with the ground we tread on and in many ways we have dampened the ability of our feet to be sensory organs.

On this Monday in Holy week as we journey with Jesus towards the cross we hear again the gospel story of Mary anointing Jesus feet with perfume.  (Click here if you would like to view the reading) A beautiful act that in many ways points towards his death and burial. The feet that walked into jerusalem yesterday to the victory shouts of Hosanna and welcome are now set on a very different path where 'hosanna' will quickly become 'crucify'.


Dear Lord,
as you journey towards the cross this week
journey with me in my illness and pain.
As Mary anointed your feet with ointment and love
so please anoint me with your healing love and presence.
Amen

This reflection is to accompany the spiritual space and Lenten Reflection at the Chapel of Christ the Healer, Cork University Hospital.

If you are in the chapel when you click on this page please feel free to add your prayer to the prayer card on the altar.

If you would like us to pray for you at our Taize Service of Prayer around the Cross on Good Friday at 7.30pm  please send an email to daniel.nuzum@hse.ie or tweet name to @goodfridaycuh using hashtag #goodfridaycuh or send a SMS to +353 87 3939142

If you live in the locality of CUH you can listen in and join us for worship through hospital radio on CUH102FM

Palm Sunday: facing illness head on to find God

Today, Palm Sunday we here again the story of the journey of Jesus into Jerusalem. All seems well, in fact all seems jubilant and festive as Jesus is acclaimed by the crowds who shout 'Hosanna'. There is a carnival scene and yet with hindsight its hard not to think that Jesus is marching with a false sense of security. Things will change rapidly when the emotions of the crowd will turn on Jesus. 'Hosanna' will be replaced by 'Crucify'.

Illness can be a bit like that. Life is going along nicely and then completely out of the blue something can go seriously wrong and our lives can be changed forever. It might be a heart attack, a stroke, an accident, a sudden attack of a dormant illness. It can feel that the world is against us and we want to cover our faces to stop us from looking at whatever it is that is in front of us. Yet, we know that in order to move forward we need to look at whatever it is  and to look at it head on and face it. Only then can we start to move forward.

Almighty God,
On this Palm Sunday as Jesus faces an uncertain future
give me the courage to face whatever is ahead
with confidence and trust in your presence
where nothing can shake your love and care for me. Amen


This reflection is to accompany the spiritual space and Lenten Reflection at the Chapel of Christ the Healer, Cork University Hospital.

If you are in the chapel when you click on this page please feel free to add your prayer to the prayer card on the altar.

If you would like us to pray for you at our weekly eucharist on Sunday mornings at 09:15 please send an email to daniel.nuzum@hse.ie 
If you live in the locality of CUH you can listen in and join us for worship through hospital radio on CUH102FM

Sensual, tender, extravagant and scandalous love

Imagine the scene, Jesus is at a dinner party and Mary opens a jar of expensive balm and warms it in her hands and then rubs it into Jesus feet. The touch of her hands made more gliding as the balm melts and is absorbed by both her hands and Jesus feet. An effortless-life motion as the balm is rubbed in. Meanwhile the perfume from the balm starts to fill the room. People didn't usually take such liberties. Even in our day it would be considered an intimate act. This is not something that can be disguised or hidden.

This causes discomfort and Judas the 'money man' tucks into Mary about the waste of money.  Imagine what could be done with the money? Yes, the money could be spent on the poor; but would it?

Here in this act Mary wastes her treasured perfume on Jesus in an action that would never be forgotten and that was poignant beyond measure as he journeyed towards death.

It is a wasteful extravagance and for me it speaks so powerfully to how we care for those who are ill. It speaks so powerfully about how we lavish the best care, skill, science, research and -above all- love on those who may never be able to pay it back. Palliative care is perhaps the best example of this.

In your illness, suffering and pain may you know the overflowing and extravagant love that God wants to lavish on you for no other reason than simply because he loves you.

Tender God,
thank you for lavishing your love
generously, wastefully and  lovingly on me.
May I sense the perfume of your presence
in the midst of illness.
Amen

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This reflection is to accompany the spiritual space and Lenten Reflection at the Chapel of Christ the Healer, Cork University Hospital.

If you are in the chapel when you click on this page please feel free to add your prayer to the prayer card on the altar.

If you would like us to pray for you at our weekly eucharist on Sunday mornings at 09:15 please send an email to daniel.nuzum@hse.ie .

If you live in the locality of CUH you can listen in and join us for worship through hospital radio every Sunday morning at 09:15 on CUH102FM

Love that no illness can take away: Finding God and Life in illness.

This week as we continue our Lenten reflections on finding God and life in the wilderness of illness we hear in our Gospel reading from St Luke today about the story of the 'Prodigal Son' and the overflowing, generous love that is demonstrated in the actions of a father towards a wayward son.

During illness we can feel unloveable as our bodies let us down; yet even when our body, mind or spirit is ill we still reflect the image of God who continues to create and recreate within us. 

A powerfully emotional story about unconditional love and a window onto the love that God lavishes on each of us. If you wish to read the parable please click here.

As God embraces you and holds you tightly have the courage to embrace whatever frightens you today, befriend it and allow God to create and recreate even in illness, even in you.

Dear Lord,

you lavish your overflowing and unconditional love beyond measure.

As I journey through illness

touch me, hold me, embrace me and love me.

Amen

This reflection is to accompany the spiritual space and Lenten Reflection at the Chapel of Christ the Healer, Cork University Hospital.

If you are in the chapel when you click on this page please feel free to add your prayer to the prayer card on the altar.

If you would like us to pray for you at our weekly eucharist on Sunday mornings at 09:15 please send an email to daniel.nuzum@hse.ie .
If you live in the locality of CUH you can listen in and join us for worship through hospital radio on CUH102FM

Pearls of Life: Spirituality for today

I was privileged to lead a series of workshops today on spirituality for young people in our Diocese who are to be confirmed by the Bishop this year. This annual gathering is always engaging and inspiring and I always learn more than I share from the young people who come. A wonderful team of leaders from our Diocesan Youth Department join the Bishop and his team to make the event a meaningful experience for young folk on their confirmation journey.

I used the Prayer Beads that were created by Bishop Martin Lönnebo from the Church of Sweden as a resource for thinking about life and faith. These prayer beads are close to my own heart and I have used them in many different contexts with people as a means to pray and reflect. These have ranged from young parents holding vigil with a seriously ill baby, a teenager battling chemotherapy, an older man with a brain tumour who lost the ability to speak to an elderly woman following a stroke. At the Chapel of Christ the Healer, Cork University Hospital the stock of beads is depleted within days of becoming available.

In each case I try to write or record an individual guide for each situation so that they can be truly connected and relevant and ultimately the user creates their own prayer that makes sense of their own situation. Somehow, the prayer beads capture the imagination of the user and are flexible enough to be adapted to the situation of the user.

Today however I used the Prayer Beads to allow the young people to think of their lives in totality -to explore how faith is connected with every part of life and how every part of life is connected to and part of the person that God loves utterly. These beads through touch, texture, colour and invested meaning are a wonderful way to open our minds to a connected, integrated and incarnational spirituality and faith that goes a long way to helping to make sense of the experience of God in our day. Hopefully in a small way they will be a useful and meaningful tool for our young people as each person was gifted a set of beads from the Bishop.

Finding God and life in illness this Lent: Our feet carry our heaviest loads

This week as we continue our lenten reflection looking at the body I invite you to think about your feet. Our feet are often covered up and if we're honest they are not usually a part of our body that we display at large. Yet our feet carry all our weight and connect us to the ground we tread on. Our feet are sensitive to touch and pressure. When our feet start to give trouble it affects so many aspects of our lifestyle. It is only then that we realise how much we take them for granted. The loss of our mobility is very challenging and yet those who use a wheelchair or mobility aids have much to teach us about the true value of our body.

Today, as you journey through lent think about the loads you are carrying and the impact they are having on your life. Are there any that you can let go of? Are there any that you can invite Jesus who walks beside us on our journey to share with you?

Dear Lord,

you journey beside us in good and hard times.

Be our friend, our companion 

and carry the loads we find hard.

Amen

This reflection is to accompany the spiritual space and Lenten Reflection at the Chapel of Christ the Healer, Cork University Hospital.

If you are in the chapel when you click on this page please feel free to add your prayer to the prayer card on the altar.

If you would like us to pray for you at our weekly eucharist on Sunday mornings at 09:15 please send an email to daniel.nuzum@hse.ie .
If you live in the locality of CUH you can listen in and join us for worship through hospital radio on CUH102FM