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

Ash Wednesday: from Palm to palm...

A pilgrim at the Chapel of Christ the Healer,
Cork University Hospital sent me this today 

Ash Wednesday is always a moving experience in hospital. The words "remember you are dust and to dust you shall return" take on a whole new meaning in the midst of illness and frailty. They are words that are sobering at the best of times, but what about when each word flakes like an ash that is too powerfully real? "Remember you are dust..." strikes a deep chord when your physical body is tired and worn and struggling against the reality of illness. "Remember you are dust..." as the gritty grain of the ash is traced in cross-like strokes across a forehead or as in our Chapel sometimes on the palm. The grit of ash, of former glory from palm leaves that were waved in joy and expectation last Palm Sunday now reduced and traced on another palm that holds the lines and the story of our human lives. Glory and mortality, joy and pain, love and loss, fire and oil, palm leaves to ash. The palm that has grown from the earth now burnt, ground and traced into the palm of our human frame. Cradled almost eucharistically, the same palms that receive the broken body of our saviour in the eucharist also cradle the brokeness of our humanity traced across the lines of our life. As the ash sinks in it takes the form of our palm lines and leave their mark.

"Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return" is a sobering reminder that the physical, beautiful bodies that we struggle with, love with and inhabit will indeed return to dust as we are transformed to glory. So yes, Ash Wednesday is a good day.