For many years now, I have sensed gifts of the Spirit and the peace of God within me.  It carries over into all the relationships that I have with others, and persons often comment about the peace that they see or sense in me. 

There is no doubt that this peace came to me in meditation and whenever I sense that I am becoming perturbed or experience unrest or if I do become overwhelmed with my feelings—I find a quiet place and wait until peace comes upon me once again. 

It is often in the details of life that peace may become eroded especially when I neglect meditative prayer for a time.  In times of crisis or in the face of extreme suffering, I usually experience peace as a deep reservoir that I can draw upon.

The gift of peace does not insulate us from suffering. In fact, we may be called to suffer, as Christ suffered, in order to enter into the suffering of others.  It is in the mystery of poverty, that is the letting go of all attachments, and through suffering, we find the strength in 
the Holy Spirit to connect with those who are often suffering just as we are, and we are able to assist in offering God’s healing power. 

These connections are seldom, if ever, of our doing. These encounters of healing are the Holy Spirit bringing hope and joy into situations of suffering and despair.  Again, it requires a certain emptiness of “self” in order to reach out and trust that the Holy Spirit is always more capable than we are to heal the human body and spirit.  

Our “desire” to heal may be great but, even as doctors or psychologists, our ability to heal is limited – limited to the body or the mind respectively – unless we can connect with the spirit in ourselves and with the spirit of the person.  Even then, we are powerless in and of ourselves.  

As a chaplain, I realize each day the extent of my powerlessness. Each day and each visit is an entirely new experience. As I walk into the hospital each morning, I am always reminded of how inadequate I am to the task.  Even on days when I am tired and lack energy, the Holy Spirit provides the energy and emotional reserve needed to connect with the patients. 

My lifelong tendencies toward the logical and analytical have finally been sublimated to the emotional and spiritual needs of the patients.  I have struggled with this personal issue in my training as a chaplain and now I observe this tendency in many others whose intellect seems to block their spiritual growth.

Yet, I continue to observe spiritual and physical healing each day as well.  It is humbling to be used on occasion as the instrument of that healing. 

Click to check out Gifts of The Spirit: Part 1, Gifts of The Spirit: Part 2, and Gifts of The Spirit: Part 3

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