Finding health in the midst of illness

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drop on the leaf - by Iva B.

We are just at the start of the New Year, which can be a good time to examine what our hopes for the coming year are, and what we learned or gained in the past year. Every ending is a new beginning, so now we have a chance of a new beginning. In Genesis we read “in the beginning God created heaven and earth”; so we can be sure that God is present in our beginnings too. Think now for a moment, what hope have you for this year? Is there a situation where you need to ask God for help and healing?

“Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.” (Genesis 1:3) When we invite God into our reality, when we become aware of His presence with us, light appears. It is good to remind ourselves that we do not go on this journey into a new year alone, Jesus accompanies us.

Recently we celebrated the Baptism of the Lord, when Jesus was baptised by John the Baptist. With our baptism we claimed our belonging to a community of faith, and perhaps Jesus with His baptism affirms that He is one of us; in a way whatever He is doing, it is to show us that He came to bring us life, and a new beginning. In the Gospel of Mark we read: “And just as [Jesus] was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased’.” (Mark 1:10-11) 

Jesus mirrors to us who we are as well. Each one of us is a beloved of God. It is much easier to embark on this journey of life knowing God is on our side. Maybe you have been crying out to God about a situation in your life, asking healing, asking help, maybe you are finding it hard at the moment. If you have, I hope that the words of Jean Vanier will bring you some encouragement, perhaps even some hope: 

In order “to be cured one needs to be rid of one’s disease. 
But to be healed one needs to learn how to live well with it. 
Healing has to do with finding health in the midst of illness. 
Healing has to do with finding wholeness, inner beauty, unity and peace.” 
(Jean Vanier)

I wish you a wellspring of God’s goodness to accompany you this year.

Iva Beranek
Dr Iva Beranek is the Ministry Facilitator for the CMH: Ireland

Communicating Your Vocation in a Changing World

Facilitated by Bishop Richard Henderson and hosted by The Church of Ireland Theological Insitute, this ‘mini-retreat’ is intended for those involved in lay ministry in the Church of Ireland. This includes diocesan and parish readers, lay pastoral assistants and prayer ministers.

Designed to allow those who exercise an authorised lay ministry an opportunity to reflect on their vocation amidst a changing world, this retreat will offer time and space for biblical reflection, discussion and prayer.

The retreat begins Friday, 20 February 2015 at 7pm and ends Saturday, 21 February at 2pm and costs €50/£40 per person for residential guests and €25/£20 for non-residential.

All bookings should be made through the Church of Ireland Theological Institute. To reserve your place, please email David Brown, Coordinator of Lay Training, at davidbrown@theologicalinsitute.ie.  Reservations must be received by 12 noon Tuesday, 16 February 2015.

 

Advent poem

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Pink-flower, creative commons

time is drawing near
when darkness shall be pierced by a new dawn
so there will be stars all over the sky
even in the darkest nights

Then, when heaven will meet the earth
time will go in reverse
not to back or forth
but within,
and eternity will be soaked into the 
pores of the earth’s skin.
It will shine from the centre of the globe for
God will be born
in the cradle of frailty and love

Yes, this humble epiphany
happened in Palestine two thousand years ago,
but now, the eternity is knocking again
from within your heart
wanting to be born like a flower
out of the depths of
your darkest nights

time is drawing near,
in fact it is almost here
when light of the dawn will crown each day
and heaven will sing us a love-song
as sun colours the sky every morning,
every night

Then, in the chambers of our heart
we will find a diamond
long forgotten and lost
not a diamond from the ring,
but the one that holds the essence
of who we are

Iva Beranek
Dr Iva Beranek is the Ministry Facilitator for the CMH: Ireland

Silence can be healing

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pottery-class-by-jen-steinmetz

“As the deer longs for running streams,
so my soul is longing for you my God”
(Psalm 42:1) 

Recently I was in America, in Chicago, and a group of us went for a pottery class for my friend’s bachelorette party, which is like a hen party, just a little different. I realised there is something quite insightful that we can learn from making pottery. I will try to illustrate it. We had the wheel in front of us and we were each given a piece of clay. The first thing we needed to learn was to ‘centre’ the clay onto the wheel.  Centring the clay means that clay will not detach and fall off the wheel, in other words it ensures that we can mould the clay after it is centred. 

The process of doing that goes something like this: you put the clay into the centre of the wheel, pour some water over it so that it is moist and then you spill the wheel and use specific movements to press the clay down and then different movements to lift it up, and you alternate between these two movements. Through the whole process you need to keep adding water because the clay needs to be moist when you work with it. This is not as easy as it sounds, especially when you are just a beginner, even though it is a lot of fun. Eventually, after a few minutes, when you press the clay down again it should form a smooth circle and you should feel no bumps as you have your hands around it while turning the wheel; the clay should roll smoothly through your hands. The instructor who was teaching the pottery class called this end result, when the clay is centred: ‘silence’.

Perhaps this is what the practice of solitude does to us as well, it centres us, even if it may be a bit challenging to go through the process at times; solitude helps to bring us into the inner silence, where there are no apparent bumps, just us in God’s presence. It is a place where healing happens. There God is free to do His work within us.  

(Photo by © Jen Steinmetz)

Iva Beranek
Dr Iva Beranek is the Ministry Facilitator for the CMH: Ireland

Dublin & Glendalough Diocesan Service

The Dublin & Glendalough Diocesan Committee for the Church’s Ministry of Healing will hold their annual service on Sunday, 19th October 2014, at 5pm in St Patrick’s, Church, Powerscourt (Enniskerry).

Archbishop Michael Jackson will preach at the service and will also commission newly appointed prayer ministers.

A reception will follow, and everyone is warmly invited.

“Journey of Forgiveness”, a Quiet Day with the Rev. Ruth Patterson

A Quiet Day led by the Rev. Ruth Patterson will take place on Saturday 22nd November 2014 in Raphoe Cathedral.

The day will start at 12 noon and conclude by 3.45pm. Coffee and tea will be provided, but participants need to bring their own lunch.

“Throughout our day together we will reflect on the process or the journey of forgiveness, enter into some practical exercises and, then, recognising that forgiveness and reconciliation are not the same, we will move into a workshop based on Psalm 85:10 that will help us identify what is necessary in order for reconciliation to take place.”

All are welcome to attend, and participants from other dioceses are invited to come too.

To register your attendance please contact Dr Iva Beranek at iva[at]ministryofhealing.ie.

An Evening for Suicide Awareness and Prevention

An Evening for Suicide Awareness and Prevention will be held on Tuesday, 11th November 2014, at 7.30pm in the Church of Ireland College of Education, Rathmines, Dublin 6.

The speaker for the evening is Joan Freeman, Founder and CEO of Pieta House. There is no charge for admission, and all are welcome.

This evening is being organised jointly by the Dublin & Glendalough  Diocesan Committee for the Ministry of Healing and the Diocesan Social Action Committee. For further details, please contact Avril Gillatt (059 862 4974).

Tuam Quiet Day

Compassion: Seeing with the Heart, a Quiet Day with Dr Iva Beranek, will be held on Saturday, 8th November 2014, in St Mary’s Cathedral, Tuam.

Come at 11am for coffee for an 11.15 start. The day will conclude with the Eucharist to finish at 4pm. Coffee, tea and soup will be provided, but participants are encouraged to bring a sandwich to complete their lunch. All are most welcome, and there is no charge to attend.

To enquire further, or to register your attendance, please contact Dean Alistair Grimason (deantuam[at]gmail.com).

Cork Quiet Day

Dr Iva Beranek will lead a Quiet Day on the theme of compassion in St Luke’s Home Education Centre on Saturday,  20th September 2014. This day is especially for those living a life of ministry, including clergy, readers, lay pastoral assistants, chaplains, healthcare works and others whose daily lives require a commitment to compassion.

Coffee and registration begin at 10am for a 10.30 start. The day will close with the Eucharist to be celebrated at 3.30pm. Refreshments and a simple lunch will be provided. There is no charge, but a donation towards the costs would be appreciated.

Booking and further details from the Rev Stephen McCann (Email: Ballydehobrector@gmail.com, Mob: 087 147 8300, Home: 028 37117).

Healing as ‘homecoming’

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Rembrandt-The Return of the Prodigal Son, detail

“The mystery of God’s love is not that he takes our pains away, but that he first wants to share them with us. Out of this divine solidarity comes new life. Jesus’ being moved in the centre of his being by human pain is indeed a movement toward new life.”
(Henri Nouwen) 

If we look into Jesus’ life we can easily notice that healing was integral part of His public ministry; what is more His death on the Cross and His Resurrection not only restored our relationship with God the Father, but they show us a pattern that most of our healing in this life will take. There is often pain involved on our journey of healing, no matter how much we wish to avoid it. Sometimes just by knowing that God is with us in whatever we are going through can bring us peace, which in itself is a sign of God’s healing. In Heaven all our tears are going to be wiped away, so any healing we receive here on Earth is like an experience of Heaven. Or in other words, it is an experiences of homecoming, as we see in the Gospel story of the return of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32).

At times even though we are in a need of God’s healing and compassion, like the prodigal son we think we are not deserving of it, and yet God’s compassion is not based on merit. God’s compassion does not depend on who we are, but on who He is. God is compassionate because that is the only way He can be – it is in His nature to show compassion. God understands our humanity, our struggles and our pain much better than we do. 

If we listened to the parable that Luke writes about with ears of the 1st century Jews, we would notice that the father’s reaction to the return of his son is surprising. Luke tells us that he runs to the son embracing him with forgiveness, but it was very unusual for a patriarch to run as the greater one’s dignity was, the slower one moved. The father knew the son was to pass through the village and as the people considered his son being outcast, they would act according to their ways of exclusion. The son would not be welcomed. So the father runs to welcome the son. “More than any other story in the Gospel, the parable of the prodigal son expresses the [richness] of God’s compassionate love” (H. Nouwen). The son is welcomed back into his true identity. Whenever Jesus offers His compassion and healing love He invites us into a new identity, He restores us even ever so little. This experience of homecoming makes us more ‘whole’.

I am sure that we could identify with different characters in the story of the prodigal son at different times of our lives, with either the younger or the older son, but in a way the goal of our Christian lives is to become compassionate like God the Father.

As we allow Jesus to form us more into His likeness and as we let the compassion we received from Him to flow into our whole being, into our heart, and from our heart into our hands, we become better equipped to bless the world with God’s love and compassion. And the world today needs this blessing.

Iva Beranek
Dr Iva Beranek is the Ministry Facilitator for the CMH: Ireland