Offerings by George A. Sprecace M.D., J.D.:

Hubble Telescope, GS

For our analysis and discussion of many current ethical issues facing us, individually and as a society,
please refer to the offerings entitled "Point and Counterpoint", GS

The following is a recently published book that advances the basic premise of this section:

"SPIRITUALITY IN PATIENT CARE: WHY, HOW, WHEN, AND WHAT", by Harold G. Koenig, 2nd edition, Templeton Foundation Press, 2007.  ISBN-13:978-1-5994-7116-7.

• "Although many health professionals are uncomfortable with anyone other than a chaplain or clergyperson performing a spiritual history and assessment of a patient, the Joint Commission for the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations requires that a spiritual assessment be made for each patient admitted to an acute care hospital or a nursing home or seen by a home health agency.  Furthermore, this spiritual assessment must be documented in the medical rercord."  (from "Book and Media Reviews", JAMA, April 2, 2008, Vol 299, No. 13).
• Another resource on this subject has recently come to my attention and is worth reviewing:  "The Role of Spirituality in Health and Mental Health", by Alice Yick Flanagan, PhD, MSW; in CME Resource, Sacramento, California (800-232-4238); Course #9197, 2008.
  

GS

Rapid Response Posting for January 11, 2009, GS

Regarding "When Jesus Came To Harvard: making moral choices today", GS

St. Paul, the Apostle: The mortar for St. Peter's "Rock", GS

Spirituality, GS

"Pope Offers Joy of Heaven", ZENIT News Agency

Father Cantalamessa on Calming the Storm, ZENIT News Agency

Document Deals With "Family and Procreation"; Echoes Teachings of "Humanae Vitae", ZENIT News Agency

Some of the mysteries of Fatima now revealed..., ZENIT News Agency

The Longer You Look, The More You See", Unknown

Pastor's Prayer, Joe Wright

"Love", Various

Bioethical Principles of Medical Practice Provided by the Linacre Institute of the Catholic Medical Association

"Here's a useful prescription from our Holy Father on how to deal with this materialistic 'mad, mad, world'."
Pope Warns Catholics Against Risks of Accumulating Material Riches

Famous Prayer, Reinhold Niebuhr

“Hope", Father James Keller, M.M.

“WHEN WE WALK WITH JESUS, WE NEVER WALK ALONE,”
Homily by Rev. Joseph Castaldi, Pastor of St. Joseph Parish, New London, CT, Sunday, July 6, 2003

The $20 Bill, Unknown

"Care for the Spirit," from Hospice of Southeastern Connecticut

Healer's Prayer

Prayer

HOW TO PLANT YOUR GARDEN FOR DAILY LIVING, (Author Unknown)

1) Plant three rows of peas: peace of mind, of heart and of soul.
2) Plant four rows of squash: squash gossip, indifference, grumbling, selfishness.
3) Plant four rows of lettuce: lettuce be faithful, be kind, be patient, really love one another.
4) Plant turnips: turnip for meetings, for service, to help one another.
5) Plant Thyme: thyme for each other, for family, for friends.

Water freely with patience and cultivate with love.  There is much fruit in your garden!  You reap what you sow.

"Life, long or short,
Is a journey towards Paradise;
There is our fatherland,
There is our real home;
There is our appointment!
Jesus is waiting for us
   In Paradise!
Never forget this supreme
and consoling truth."
        Pope John Paul 11 (June 14, 1979)
 

"We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love another."
        Jonathan Swift, "Thoughts on Various Subjects", from "Miscellanies" (1711)
 

"Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction."
        Blaise Pascal,  Pensees, No. 894 (1670)
 

"I have learned...toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange I am ungrateful to those teachers."
        Kahlil Gibran, "Sand and Foam" (1926)
 

The following is a thought from Ronald Reagan:

"A young man whose father is a carpenter grows up working in his father's shop. He has no formal education. He owns no property of any kind. One day he puts down his tools and walks out of his father's shop. He starts preaching on street corners and in the nearby countryside. Walking from place to place preaching all the while even though he is in no way an ordained minister he never gets farther than an area perhaps 100 miles wide at the most. He does this for three years. Then he is arrested, tried and convicted. There is no court of appeal so he is executed at age 33 along with two common thieves. Those in charge of his execution roll dice to see who gets his clothing -- the only possessions he has. His family cannot afford a burial place so he is interred in a borrowed tomb. End of story?

No, this uneducated, propertyless young man who preached on street corners for only three years who left no written word has for 2000 years had a greater effect on the entire world than all the rulers, kings and emperors, all the conquerors, the generals and admirals, all the scholars, scientists and philosophers who ever lived -- all put together. How do we explain that?

...Unless he really was what he said he was."

The following is a reading from "Toilers of the Sea,"  by Victor Hugo:

"I am standing upon that foreshore.  A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean.  She is an object of  beauty and strength,  and I stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come down to mingle with each other.  Then someone at my side says "There!  She's gone!"  "Gone where?"   "Gone from my sight, that's all."  She is just as large in mast and spar and hull as ever she was when she left my side; just as able to bear her load of living freight to the place of her destination.  Her diminished size is in me, not in her.  And just at that moment when someone at my side says "There!  She's gone!" there are other eyes watching her coming and other voices ready to take up the glad shout "Here she comes!"  And that is dying."

REMEMBERING

Go ahead and mention my child,
   The one that died, you know.
Don't worry about hurting me further.
   The depth of my pain doesn't show.
Don't worry about making me cry.
   I'm already crying inside.
Help me to heal by releasing
   The tears that I try to hide.
I'm hurt when you just keep silent,
   Pretending he didn't exist.
I'd rather you mention my child,
   Knowing that he has been missed.
You asked me how I was doing.
   I say "pretty good" or "fine".
But healing is something ongoing.
   I feel it will take a lifetime.

AMEN

A thought to live by:

"God does not call us to do great things, but to do small things with great love."
        Mother Teresa (1901 - 1997)

A Promise:

"Do not let your hearts be troubled.  Believe in God, Believe also in me.  In my Father's house there are many dwelling places.  If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?  And if  I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.  And you know the way to the place where I am going."  Thomas said to Him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going.  How can we know the way?"  Jesus said to him,  "I am the way, and the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me."
        John 14:1-6