Mindsoulness – where mind and soul meet!

I find it serendipitous that after spending the majority of my life building, helping communities and working in a political environment, I now try to help people find themselves. The reality is that by assisting others in finding themselves, I also have especially found myself.

Two years ago, I was given an opportunity to become a volunteer Spiritual Care Practitioner at the hospital, I asked why they offered me that opportunity. The answer was: “you are the right person for the job.” That did not really answer my question so I asked again and this time I was told: “you will answer your question as you gradually fill your role and meet people.” I was basically taught to have faith that I would eventually know.

This also meant that I would have to have faith in learning how to be a SCP. No specific manual is provided – although, there is some training that is offered by a variety of professional associations, if one had the time to explore their websites.  

Well, two years have passed and I have visited with all sorts of people. People that were dying, people that needed comfort because they had lost someone they loved, people that needed to receive encouragement and believe in hope again, and many more. Most importantly, people from all walks of life and different walks of faith. 

As of today, I often ask myself: is this making any difference? Not that this is important. I do what I do because I feel it is the right thing to do. But I am a human being and so I am prone to curiosity, and in my daily prayers I always ask to make a difference in someone’s life, or, in other words, to be a vessel of God and be on His errand, to be sent to the one who needs. The reality is, I never see the people I talk to more than once and I do not expect to see them ever again. So I reconcile my service directly with Him who sent me. And that is sufficient.

The other day, however, I stopped at a Starbucks to use their facility and while I was leaving the store, the young man working at the till called for my attention and asked me to see him. I thought that I had to buy something to justify my use of the facility. On the contrary, he asked me if I was one of the volunteers at the hospital and wanted to know my name. I told him I was and that my name was Alberto, then he said the following: “I just wanted you to know that we met once and you have touched my life. In fact, so much so that you changed my life. Thank you!”  I was stunned and I stammered weakly: “Wow. Thank you!” So, I did make some difference, and the example of Christ who ministered one-on-one became more meaningful to me. I know I am no-one special and I do not do anything special but just try to help. However, I am grateful: my cup runneth over.

I think this young man had participated in one of the Spiritual Care session I facilitate at the hospital. You can imagine how I felt the following Friday when I walked in the room to speak to several people who needed to hear words of comfort. The preparation was even more detailed than the ones I did before, and the Spirit prompted me to speak about Faith.

Let me share with you what I shared with them. I hope to learn even more if I write my thoughts down for others to reflect more and continue to reflect upon myself.

First and foremost, faith is a relationship of trust that allows us to believe in the reality of Grace. It gives us confidence that life has a purpose and it helps us believe in ourselves as well. If you think about it, faith is the wind in the sails of our dreams and therefore, it can provide us with the strength to overcome doubts, fear, or hopelessness. So, as we move forward with faith, we are confident even in the most trying times.

It has been often my experience that faith is placed on the hope of positive outcomes. But what about faith when the outcome is not so positive or negative, even unexpected, altogether? I believe true faith is demonstrated in the ability to face our circumstances with hope, and love – also, and maybe especially, when the outcome may be negative or unexpected.  To me, faith is trust in a personal relationship with God, His promises, and His divine guidance. It is also the foundation of our relationship with God and a trust that all will be well in the end. 

For instance, I admire the faith of people like Helen Keller who put trust in God and in her own strength to find ways to overcome an incredible challenging life against all the odds. Or the faith of Rick Hansen, who has made his accident that left him on a wheelchair an opportunity to help others in a way that few could have done. 

I also admire the faith of my mother, who, in the last few days of her life, saw the concern sculpted in the face of my brother and said to him: “I see you are concerned, can you teach me to pray so I can pray for you?” And so it is that you cannot separate faith from pure love. My mother was dying and yet she had the faith, sustained by her love, to pray for my brother.

And I admire many, many others like them who, because of their faith, have overcome all odds and made a difference in thousands of people’s lives or even in the life of one.  

In this unbelievably difficult world, we need more. It will make it all better…it will make a true difference!