Annual Retreat – Christ as Healer

We held our second annual retreat at Schoensatt Scotland. Thirteen persons attended. The theme of our retreat was Christ as Healer.

Dr Joe McShane, past Chair of the Alzheimer’s Society, gave a presentation on caring for a person with Alzheimer’s. Joe graduated from Glasgow University in 1956, and retired from general practice in Manchester in 1989. He spoke about caring, from his experience of caring for his wife Ethna who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease on 6th April 1990. Caring is an integral part of life, and indeed is our first experience of life as infants. It is offered to those to help improve their quality of life when they are not in a position to do so themselves, and the need for care may be temporary or permanent. The corporal acts of mercy, namely feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, sheltering the homeless, visiting the sick, visiting the imprisoned, and burying the dead,  describe many of the acts of caring, and give us a spiritual basis for the importance of caring.

Joe reminded us of the functions of the soul as described in the Penny Catechism: “The functions of my soul are memory, understanding and will”.  These are all affected by Alzheimer’s disease, but the person is of no less worth and is loved no less.

Good care requires consistency, compassion and constancy. Caregivers have needs for physical and emotional support as they address the emotional impact of feeling isolated, angry, depressed, and resentful, and the practical concerns of being able to cope, being able to afford the costs, and delivering good care. Good care of uncompromising quality and good support for carers will help us to avoid despair and presumption in the face of illness such as Alzheimer’s, despair and presumption being sins against the Holy Spirit. Positive care is always possible. To achieve this, we must always keep in mind the principle of reciprocity: to treat others as we ourselves would wish to be treated; and we must acknowledge inadequacies where we see them, refusing to accept second best as a matter of expediency.

Dr Miriam Deeny led the meditation of the Lourdes water walk, using the pictures and text of these stations placed along the riverside of the Gave. We looked at these stations which consider God’s relationships with man, in the pool of Bersheba where warring tribes made peace,  at Meriba in the desert where God made his covenant with Moses, in the oasis of En-Gaddi, in the Spring of Nazareth, at the healing bath of Bethesda where Jesus healed the cripple of his sins and of his paralysis, in the meeting of the Samaritan woman and Jesus at Jacob’s well,  in the living water that is Jesus expressed in the fountain of the Temple, in the meeting of the Samaritan woman and Jesus at Jacob’s well and in the baptism of Apollus by Philip on the road to Gaza.  We considered the essential life giving properties of water for our physical and spiritual wellbeing.

Fr John Keenan, chaplain to the SCMA, led a meditation drawing on the readings of the 7th Sunday of Easter, and on the Sacrament of the Sick. He spoke of the vocation of the Apostles, and emphasised that the apostles were neither elected nor self-selected, but were chosen deliberately by God. He drew an analogy between this vocation and the vocation of healing. He spoke of the mission of Christ to heal us from our sins, and His expression of this through acts of physical healing. In the priestly prayer of Christ which was the Gospel of the day, Jesus consecrates himself for our sake, and asks his Father to consecrate us in truth. Fr John asked us as doctors to do more than our professional work, but in addition to consecrate ourselves to our work so that the Spirit can work through us and with us. In so doing, we shall have the strength of the Spirit, and the blessing that God is working through us.

We started our day with Rosary in the shrine of Schoenstatt, and we joined with the Sisters in the Marian Devotion. Our day ended with vigil Mass. We all left, inspired and renewed, and willing to consecrate our work as healers.