Chaplain's Corner

Back in November I was at church and we had a guest speaker from Caronport’s Briercrest Bible College and Seminary.

It’s over, but is it? Another Christmas has come and gone, but I wonder how many ghosts of Christmases past will haunt our Christmas celebrations in the years ahead?

Well, here we are with Christmas just about here. I’d like to take a few moments to reflect on the many families that I have had the privilege of interacting with this past year who will approach Christmas very differently this year than they did last year.

Contentment – now there is a word you don’t hear much. When I was a kid I remember commercials for Carnation Condensed Milk. The slogan was “Carnation Condensed Milk, the milk from contented cows”.

Running out of steam – that’s right – it happened to me back in August about a week before I had some vacation time scheduled.

A few months ago I was seeing a woman on our Hospital’s Medical unit and an interesting question arose. She asked me, “Is it OK to take communion if you can no longer get out to church.”

By now all the turkey leftovers have been consumed, family gatherings are but memories and in just a few weeks, winter will set in upon us and many of us, who simply endure winter will begin longing for the first hints of spring and praying for a mild winter.

The countryside is littered with musicians who hardly ever use their gifts to bless others. Maybe you are one of those people, a closet musician, a pianist, an organist, whose opportunity to play regularly no longer exists.

So many times the essence of spiritual care boils down to presence. In a culture that defines value by doing, by producing, by measurable outcomes, presence is undervalued.

Not long ago I was at a workshop on the “Spiritual Care for the Cognitively Impaired”. I didn’t much like the title, but I understood what the workshop was about.