Download or read book Memoirs of a Hospital Chaplain written by Chaplain Geralyn Cappabianca and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2015-11-16 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hospitals can be fearful places where people come for tranistions, from sickness to health, from dying to eternal life. We walk through many of life's transitional doors in a hospital. The hospital chaplain can help people with these challenges, providing a calming, peaceful presence, someone who will walk with them through their doors. Through the use of the metaphor of the door and many true inspirational patient stories, as well as the chaplain's own journey through her many doors, this book will invite the reader to laugh, to cry, and to consider the many doors of tranistion in their own life. Topics discussed include end-of-life planning, coping with grief and loss, compassion fatigue and burn-out, near-death experiences, and finding peace and joy admist life's transitions. The book itself models the role of the chaplain in the hospital setting, inviting all chaplains to reflect on their own role in their ministry setting. It is an inspirational spiritual journey, sometimes mystical, sometimes heart-wrenching, but always engaging and inviting further thought and reflection by the reader. These are stories that almost everyone can relate to, as they are stories about life's greatest events, such as weddings, birth, death, and coming to new life after a loss. The final chapter offers spiritual tools for coping with the many transitions, the many doors, that life invites us to walk through. The final word: life is eternal, we are eternal, we are one, all is well. Readers who will enjoy the book are doctors, nurses, chaplains and chaplain students, and other healthcare professionals. Other readers include those on a spiritual journey, those who have an interest in the mysteries of life and death, and those wanting to learn how to care for aging parents and need to have the difficult conversation about end-of-life issues such as living wills and advance directives. On a broader level, everyone who wants to live a more spiritual life will find the invitations to reflect on issues such as regrets, "bucket lists," forgiveness, and choosing love, to be inspiring.
Download or read book Soul Support Spiritual Encounters at Life s End written by Joan Paddock Maxwell and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2017-06-20 with total page 231 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A young dancer's last hope--a bone marrow transplant--has failed. A homeless man, in the final stages of AIDS, refuses to speak. A newly retired woman has just received a terminal diagnosis and is wailing in despair. What can we learn about death, dying, and the human spirit as we journey with a hospital chaplain into sickrooms like these? Soul Support tells true stories of people coming to terms--or not--with their final days. It offers intimate, behind-the-scenes accounts of the many ways patients, their families and friends, and hospital staff all deal with death and dying. It speaks to readers reflecting on their own mortality or the life-threatening illness of a loved one, and tells of the sometimes-astonishing events that can occur when people are in their last hours of life. The book tells not only their stories, but also the chaplain's. It relates how she listened and learned and stumbled and grew. Soul Support speaks to believers and nonbelievers alike, providing information, inspiration, and hope.
Download or read book The Voices We Carry written by J. S. Park and published by Moody Publishers. This book was released on 2020-05-05 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reclaim Your Headspace and Find Your One True Voice As a hospital chaplain, J.S. Park encountered hundreds of patients at the edge of life and death, listening as they urgently shared their stories, confessions, and final words. J.S. began to identify patterns in his patients’ lives—patterns he also saw in his own life. He began to see that the events and traumas we experience throughout life become deafening voices that remain within us, even when the events are far in the past. He was surprised to find that in hearing the voices of his patients, he began to identify his own voices and all the ways they could both harm and heal. In The Voices We Carry, J.S. draws from his experiences as a hospital chaplain to present the Voices Model. This model explores the four internal voices of self-doubt, pride, people-pleasing, and judgment, and the four external voices of trauma, guilt, grief, and family dynamics. He also draws from his Asian-American upbringing to examine the challenges of identity and feeling “other.” J.S. outlines how to wrestle with our voices, and even befriend them, how to find our authentic voice in a world of mixed messages, and how to empower those who are voiceless. Filled with evidence-based research, spiritual and psychological insights, and stories of patient encounters, The Voices We Carry is an inspiring memoir of unexpected growth, humor, and what matters most. For those wading through a world of clamor and noise, this is a guide to find your clear, steady voice.
Download or read book Hospital Chaplaincy in the Twenty first Century written by Christopher Swift and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-03-02 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The place of religion in public life continues to be a much-debated topic in Western nations. This book charts the changing role of hospital chaplains and examines through detailed case studies the realities of practice and the political debates which either threaten or sustain the service. This second edition includes a new introduction and updated material throughout to present fresh insights and research about chaplaincy, including in relation to New Atheism and the developing debate about secularism and religion in public life. Swift concludes that chaplains must do more to communicate the value of what they bring to the bedside.
Download or read book I Could ve Got Lost by Myself written by William G. Leach and published by . This book was released on 2006* with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Spiritual Care at the End of Life written by Steve Nolan and published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers. This book was released on 2012 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the services that chaplains provide to dying patients and the unique relationship that palliative care staff construct with people at the end of life. It explores the nature of hope when faced with the inevitable and develops a theory of spiritual care rooted in relationship that has implications for all healthcare professionals.
Download or read book On Living written by Kerry Egan and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2017-10-24 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A poetic and philosophical and brave and uplifting meditation on how important it is to make peace and meaning of our lives while we still have them.” –Elizabeth Gilbert, bestselling author of Eat Pray Love "Illuminating, unflinching and ultimately inspiring... A book to treasure.” –People Magazine A hospice chaplain passes on wisdom on giving meaning to life, from those taking leave of it. As a hospice chaplain, Kerry Egan didn’t offer sermons or prayers, unless they were requested; in fact, she found, the dying rarely want to talk about God, at least not overtly. Instead, she discovered she’d been granted a powerful chance to witness firsthand what she calls the “spiritual work of dying”—the work of finding or making meaning of one’s life, the experiences it’s contained and the people who have touched it, the betrayals, wounds, unfinished business, and unrealized dreams. Instead of talking, she mainly listened: to stories of hope and regret, shame and pride, mystery and revelation and secrets held too long. Most of all, though, she listened as her patients talked about love—love for their children and partners and friends; love they didn’t know how to offer; love they gave unconditionally; love they, sometimes belatedly, learned to grant themselves. This isn’t a book about dying—it’s a book about living. And Egan isn’t just passively bearing witness to these stories. An emergency procedure during the birth of her first child left her physically whole but emotionally and spiritually adrift. Her work as a hospice chaplain healed her, from a brokenness she came to see we all share. Each of her patients taught her something about what matters in the end—how to find courage in the face of fear or the strength to make amends; how to be profoundly compassionate and fiercely empathetic; how to see the world in grays instead of black and white. In this hopeful, moving, and beautiful book, she passes along all their precious and necessary gifts.
Download or read book One Night Two Souls Went Walking written by Ellen Cooney and published by Coffee House Press. This book was released on 2020-11-10 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A young interfaith chaplain is joined on her hospital rounds one night by an unusual companion: a rough-and-tumble dog who may or may not be a ghost. As she tends to the souls of her patients—young and old, living last moments or navigating fundamentally altered lives—their stories provide unexpected healing for her own heartbreak. Balancing wonder and mystery with pragmatism and humor, Ellen Cooney (A Mountaintop School for Dogs and Other Second Chances) returns to Coffee House Press with a generous, intelligent novel that grants the most challenging moments of the human experience a shimmer of light and magical possibility.
Download or read book A Day in the Life of a Chaplain written by Rick Rood and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2022-02-11 with total page 107 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How can I minister to people in the hospital? How can I bring grace and hope to people in pain? What is a Christian view of death and dying? Of grief and loss? Will I see my baby in heaven? Does God promise always to heal in answer to our prayers? How do we respond in the face of suffering and seemingly unanswered prayer? How does God use life's most difficult experiences? These are just some of the questions that Chaplain Rick Rood addresses in this book. Weaving together stories from his twenty-three years as a hospital chaplain and insights from Scripture, Rick provides help to those who want to minister effectively to hospital patients and their loved ones. As you read this book, you will walk with him through the various units of a hospital, and encounter situations typically experienced in each one. Rick's prayer is that the Lord might use this book to help its readers become more compassionate and more effective agents of God's grace in the lives of people in pain.
Download or read book The Spirit Divided written by Benedict R. Maryniak and published by Mercer University Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Civil War Chaplains wondered whose side God was on, and if their ministries might be in vain. They saw, on both sides, God's Spirit at work. Was the Spirit divided, was God punishing both North and South for their sins, or was there some other explanation for this seemingly endless war?
Download or read book Faith Under Fire written by Roger Benimoff and published by Crown. This book was released on 2010-03-02 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Running away from God doesn’t work. I had tried.” —Roger Benimoff As he left for his second tour of duty as an Army chaplain in Iraq, Roger Benimoff noted in his journal: I am excited and I am scared. I am on fire for God...He is my hope, strength, and focus. But not long after returning to Iraq, the burdens of his job–the memorial services for soldiers killed in action, the therapy sessions after contact with the enemy, the perilous excursions “outside the wire” while under enemy fire–began to overwhelm him. Amid the dust, heat, and blood of Iraq, Benimoff felt the pillar of strength he’d always relied on to hold him up–his faith in God–begin to crumble. Unable to make sense of the senseless, Benimoff turned to his journal. What did it mean to believe in a God who would allow the utter horror and injustice of war? Did He want these brave young men and women to die? In his darkest moment, Benimoff wrote: Why am I so angry? I do not want anything to do with God. I am sick of religion. It is a crutch for the weak. Benimoff’s spiritual crisis heightened upon his return home to Fort Carson, Colorado. He withdrew emotionally from wife and sons, creating tensions that threatened to shatter the family. He was assigned to work at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where he counseled returning soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder–until he was diagnosed himself with PTSD. Finding himself in the role of patient rather than caregiver, connecting as an equal with his fellow sufferers, and revisiting scriptural readings that once again rang with meaning and truth, he began his most decisive battle: for the love of his family and for the chance to once again open his heart to the healing grace of God. Intimate and powerful, drawing on Benimoff’s and his wife’s journals, Faith Under Fire chronicles a spiritual struggle through war, loss, and the hard process of learning to believe again.
Download or read book A Chaplain s Pilgrimage written by Kiyo Itokazu and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2007-10 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From a blissful and innocent childhood years in Lahaina, Maui during World War II to the Vietnam War and to terminal patients in healthcare settings, the author presents an autobiographical pilgrimage. The fear of his own death in Vietnam and the befriending of a catatonic female patient in a psychiatric institution became the catalyst for his psychological, emotional and spiritual growth. The experiential knowledge enabled him to work in the healthcare field as a Hospital Chaplain. With his knowledge of the dynamics of critically ill and terminal patients, doctor and patient protocol, and medical bio-ethics, he was able to avoid an unnecessary open heart surgery during a vacation trip to Memphis. His pilgrimage continues through his senior years to redeem the God given time he is privileged to enjoy and acknowledge that life is worthwhile at every age. He continues to sing with the Psalmist, "This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." Psalm 118:24 (NIV)
Download or read book A Day in the Life of a Chaplain written by Rick Rood and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2022-02-11 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How can I minister to people in the hospital? How can I bring grace and hope to people in pain? What is a Christian view of death and dying? Of grief and loss? Will I see my baby in heaven? Does God promise always to heal in answer to our prayers? How do we respond in the face of suffering and seemingly unanswered prayer? How does God use life’s most difficult experiences? These are just some of the questions that Chaplain Rick Rood addresses in this book. Weaving together stories from his twenty-three years as a hospital chaplain and insights from Scripture, Rick provides help to those who want to minister effectively to hospital patients and their loved ones. As you read this book, you will walk with him through the various units of a hospital, and encounter situations typically experienced in each one. Rick’s prayer is that the Lord might use this book to help its readers become more compassionate and more effective agents of God’s grace in the lives of people in pain.
Download or read book Creating Space written by Sacha Pearce and published by Sacristy Press. This book was released on 2022-03-15 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Creating Space models the way in which practice development emerges from reflecting on the human story and reveals to healthcare, the Church and the community, the unique role of the chaplain’s experiences as a resource to others.
Download or read book Blessed with Enough Foolishness written by Michael Angrosino and published by Infinity Publishing. This book was released on 2006-02 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Can compassionate health care be more than a slogan? Step inside a big city hospital as the author, a chaplain trainee, becomes a part of its pastoral care team.
Download or read book Dementia written by John Swinton and published by SCM Press. This book was released on 2017-01-31 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the Michael Ramsay Prize 2016 Dementia is one of the most feared diseases in Western society today. Some have even gone so far as to suggest euthanasia as a solution to the perceived indignity of memory loss and the disorientation that accompanies it. Here, John Swinton develops a practical theology of dementia for caregivers, people with dementia, ministers, hospital chaplains, and medical practitioners as he explores two primary questions: • Who am I when I’ve forgotten who I am? • What does it mean to love God and be loved by God when I have forgotten who God is? Offering compassionate and carefully considered theological and pastoral responses to dementia and forgetfulness, Swinton’s Dementia redefines dementia in light of the transformative counter story that is the gospel.
Download or read book Death Row Chaplain written by Earl Smith and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2016-04-19 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A riveting, behind-the-bars look at one of America's most feared prisons: San Quentin-- by a minister to the lost souls sitting on death row. Himself a former criminal, Smith shares the most important lessons he's learned from years of helping inmates discover God's plan for them. Their stories show us that it is still possible to find God's grace and mercy from behind bars, and that it's never too late to turn our lives around.
