Sacred Moments of Healing

“Prayer Beads”  Quilt

Roberta Lagomarsini, Bishop, CA

Personal Photo, AQS QuiltWeek, Grand Rapids, Michigan (2025)

"Singing is praying twice”

St. Augustine & Chance the Rapper

Finding the sacred is a quest that seems universal and central to the big idea of healing.  I was reminded of this in the recent book, Fully Alive: Tending to the Soul in Turbulent Times, by Elizabeth Oldfield.  This book and her podcast capture the contemporary search for ”The Sacred” in our lives.  

In any culture, we are looking for a transformative response to our deepest disconnections.  We find these responses in words like, “mitzvah,” “mudita” “”jeong, and “ubuntu”.  In Western culture we see it in the institution of the Christian Church and its responses to suffering that we describe as “healing”.

What is hard to capture in the our meaning of “healing” is how it is understood as a community.  We largely see healing as an individual outcome, but as the quilters remind us this is about our connections with each other and the power of beauty.  

Prayers, like singing, are another place where we can experience those healing and sacred moments.  Here is a portion “A Liturgy for Medical Providers” of recently discovered books, “Every Moment Holy Series:”:

“There is no end to malady, sickness,

injury, and disease in this broken world,

so there is no end to the line of hurting

people who daily need my(our) tending.  

Therefore give me(us) grace, O God,

that I(we) might be generous with my(our) kindness,

and that in this healing and care-taking vocation

my(our) hands might become an extension of your

hands, and my(our) service a conduit for your mercy.”

        *Italic bold my change to original

These shared sacred moments of healing are present in our communities of healing found in the beauty of words and quilts.  Thanks be to God!

Marvin

References

AQS QuiltWeek, 2025

https://www.americanquilter.com/grand-rapids-2025

“Singing is Praying Twice” and More from Late Night with Chance the Rapper

https://thebothandblog.wordpress.com/2017/09/29/singing-is-praying-twice-and-more-from-late-night-with-chance-the-rapper/

Oldfield, E. (2024). Fully Alive. Baker Books.

This liturgy is from Every Moment Holy. Volume !,  by Doug McKelvey.  

https://www.everymomentholy.com/liturgies

Hage, M. L. (2020). Healing Disconnections.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2020/09/healing-disconnections.html

Hage, M. L. (2020). Finding Joy.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2020/01/finding-joy.html

Hage, M. L. (2024). Healing Peace Revisited.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2024/12/healing-peace-revisited.html

A Healing Vocation

“The Cunning Man” by Robertson Davies

The words of the reckless pierce like swords, 

but the tongue of the wise brings healing.

Proverbs 12:18 (NIV)

It’s not easy to describe the characteristics of a “healing vocation” in general or with specific events in your own life.  A stimulus for this recent effort began with our trip to Canada.  While in Toronto, I was reminded of a book by the Canadian author,  Robertson Davies, “The Cunning Man”.  This well known Canadian author wrote his last book describing the life of an atypical fictional physician, Jonathan Hullah, M.D., F.R.C.P.  I had first read it while practicing and teaching at Duke University.  I reread it now with a new appreciation and perspective.

A theme of this novel is the intersections of religion, science and the arts of a “healing vocation”.  The  protagonist, Dr. Hullah, embodies the influences of these powerful cultural forces to bring healing to those around him.  He describes a “high touch”, narrative medical care founded in both ancient and contemporary practice.  He sees the importance of ritual in its various forms.

The future of the “healing vocations” is being challenged in multiple ways that can be addressed by some ancient ideas and disciplines.  The good news is that these powerful cultural forces are still being explored today by authors like Imber, Sacks, Nussbaum and Verghese.

Marvin

References

Davies, R. (1995). The Cunning Man. New York : Viking.

Hage, M. L. (2023). Can AI be a Healing Agent?

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2023/08/can-ai-be-healing-agent.html

Bill Gates: Within 10 years, AI will replace many doctors and teachers—humans won’t be needed ‘for most things’  

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/26/bill-gates-on-ai-humans-wont-be-needed-for-most-things.html

Imber, J. B. (2008). Trusting Doctors: The Decline of Moral Authority in American Medicine 

(1 ed.). Princeton University Press.

Sacks, J. (2014). The Great Partnership: Science, Religion, and the Search for Meaning (Reprint ed.). Schocken.

Nussbaum, A. M. (2016). The Finest Traditions of My Calling: One Physician’s Search for the Renewal of Medicine (1 ed.). Yale University Press.

Hage, M. L. (2023). Healiing Visions.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2023/06/healing-visions.html

Then & Now

“Three Augustinian Nuns called from Dieppe”

to establish the L’Hotel-Dieu de Quebec -1639

Basilque Notre-Dame De Montreal

Matthew 25:40

Sainte-Anne-de-Beauprie Shrine, Quebec

It was a return summer trip Canada where we again were welcomed and learned more about our own healing history.   What we saw a story of the beginnings of healing care in North America.  It is not a story I knew in any detail except the nominal connection of healthcare to religious organizations.  The missing information was the centrality of nursing in the story!

Near the end of the trip, an article from the University of Michigan was published that emphasized the continued relevance of the story we just learned in Canada.  According to the authors, the “sacred moment experiences” are still common in the care of others.  What was surprising is the reluctance in sharing these sacred moments.  

The recent experiences in Canada reinforced that “Bienvenue”/“Welcome” is the path to where we experience these shared and sacred moments.   Our shared professional history is deeply connected with our northern neighbors.  

Thanks to all the “Sisters", past and present, that have and continue to treat body and soul.

Marvin

References

L’Hotel-Dieu de Quebec

https://www.pc.gc.ca/apps/dfhd/page_nhs_eng.aspx?id=683

Basilique Notre-Dame de Montreal

https://www.basiliquenotredame.ca/en

Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré Shrine

https://www.quebec-cite.com/en/businesses/sainte-anne-de-beaupre-shrine

Hage, M. L. (2024). Healing the Spaces between Us.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2024/07/healing-spaces-between-us.html

Ties that bind: the evolution of education for professional nursing in Canada from the 17th to the 21st Century

https://www.casn.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Ties-That-Bind-The-evolution-of-nursing-education-in-Canada.pdf

Sacred Moment Experiences Among Internal Medicine Physicians

Jessica Ameling, MPH¹; Nathan Houchens, MD^1,2; M. Todd Greene, PhD, MPH^1,3; et al

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2834653?utm_campaign=articlePDF&utm_medium=articlePDFlink&utm_source=articlePDF&utm_content=jamanetworkopen.2025.13159#google_vignette

Hage, M. L. (2016). Invited.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2016/01/invited.html

Paths and Ways

 Path’s and Way’s

Show me your ways, Lord,
    teach me your paths.

Psalms 25:4 (NIV)

We just finished graduation celebrations where many speakers shared their advice.  One particular speaker, Abraham Verghese, gave a notable address to Harvard University graduates.  During this same time, I had the opportunity to read two wonderful books that describe in detail the “paths and ways” of living.  

All three address  the “paths and ways” of our lives as we make spaces for finding meaning.  For Douglas  Brouwer in “The Traveler’s Path”, the spiritual dimension is found in the German word, “Sehnsucht”.  

“In short, I’ve never lost my Sehnsucht..a yearning for something that might somehow complete us. Yearning. Longing…”

For Travis West In “The Sabbath’s Way” meaning is found in living “Sabbath”.

“So, too, the Sabbath is a way of gently breaking cycles of isolation and exclusion… to learn to see the world through a lens of wholeness and interdependence …”

Whether by “Seinsuchtl” or “Sabbath” we can find a place of belonging.  It is an intimacy that  brings healing and meaning to our lives.

Thanks for the words and lives of Abraham Verghese, Douglas Brouwer and Travis West,  The relationships we have with each other and the larger dimensions of our lives are stories we need to live and tell.

Marvin

p.s. Go get the books and watch the Harvard Commencement.

References

Abraham Verghese Delivers the Commencement Harvard Commencement 2025 

A Time of Challenge and Resilience

https://singjupost.com/transcript-of-abraham-vergheses-harvard-commencement-speech-2025/

Brouwer, Douglas J.. The Traveler's Path: Finding Spiritual Growth and Inspiration Through Travel (p. 214).  Kindle Edition.

West, Travis. The Sabbath Way: Making Room in Your Life for Rest, Connection, and Delight (p. 142).. Kindle Edition.

Hage, M. L. (2015). Healing Missions.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2015/05/healing-missions.html

Hage, M. L. (2017). Sabbath Healing

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2017/02/sabbath-healing.html

Hage, M. L. (2025). Belonging

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2025/03/belonging.html