… to avoid being present to those for whom we care? … read dom Andre Louf … ” … for me really to love, it is important that I feel a sense of need myself. My own need for love plays a role as great as the material or even the spiritual needs of others. […]
active, generous service as a way to avoid love? Read More »
“Prince Andrei not only knew that he would die, but felt that he was dying, that he was already half dead. He experienced an awareness of that estrangement from everything earthly and a joyful and strange lightness of being. Without haste or worry, he waited for what lay ahead of him. The dread, the eternal,
the death of Prince Andrei … Read More »
… “In [Mozart’s] last letter written to his dying father, dated April 4, 1787, he wrote, speaking precisely of the final stage of life on earth: “For about a year I have become so familiar with this sincere and greatly loved friend of man, [death], that its image no longer holds anything that is terrifying,
great, dramatic and serene meditation on death … Read More »
… Rutecki discusses the recent literature (also here) and reminds us that “it’s about time and touch as well. Human intimacy is not reimbursable, it transcends dollars and cents, and we cannot be said to care at all without it.”
the dignity of hand feeding those with dementia … Read More »
Discussing the many psychological and spiritual maladies of our times, John Waters suggests the root problem may lie in our failure to recognize our utter dependence … “The desire to impose order on the universe and to become unsettled at our inevitable failure to do so may be ultimately a symptom of the expression in
autonomy … control … unhinged? Read More »
… Nuala O’Faolain’s interview with Marian Finucane – on her experience after being diagnosed with metastatic lung cancer … a transcript. Her friend Nell McCafferty describes the interview as “listening to the cry of an animal in the forest.” “It amazed me, Marian, how quickly life turned black, immediately almost. For example, I lived somewhere
the essence of this experience is alone-ness … Read More »
… we swim in a culture of autonomy … independence … But is this what we are in our deepest selves? Lynch discusses … from his book Images of Hope: Imagination as Healer of the Hopeless. It is the secret fear of most people that they cannot have both dependence and independence, just as it
… “After so much stress on the necessity of a leader to prevent his own personal feelings and attitudes from interfering in a helping relationship … it seems necessary to re-establish the basic principle that no one can help anyone without becoming involved, without entering with his whole person into the painful situation, without taking
wounded healer … henri nouwen … Read More »
… reflections of young Canadian physicians engaged in the euthanasia proposal there … Maximilian Zucchi, Laurence Normand-Rivest … and other voices … John Zucchi, Marc Beauchamp. “At the end of the session, the patient bid her farewells to the physiotherapist, then turned to me and said: “You know, it’s thanks to people like her that
fixing a new gaze on our patients … Read More »
… “The culture in which we find ourselves … impedes [a] loving knowledge: it imposes another, wrong kind of knowledge … Because this culture separates us from our experience as we have felt it … it cuts off this relationship of ours with experience.” Julian Carron The Destiny of Man 2004 – quoting Luigi Giussani
our culture impedes a loving knowledge … Read More »
