Journal of Sacred Work

      On National Public Radio (NPR) recently, a reporter interviewed doctors and nurses in a burn unit treating soldiers suffering the exhausting and exquisite agony of severe burns (click on photo to enlarge.) One soldier had been flown in from the front lines of the Iraq War. He entered the hospital more than a year ago with burns over 97% of his body. "These patients never survive," a doctor said. "But somehow this fellow did." It took over four hundred days of radical loving care to bring about this miracle.

"In this work," a nurse said, "you either celebrate glorious success or your heart is broken…"

Every doctor and nurse knows that burn patients are among the hardest challenges to care. Treatment requires a painstaking commitment with limited chances of success. The work is more often heartbreaking than glorious. Who takes care of these courageous caregivers that, each day, face the prospect of treating these horribly wounded patients – the ones most people don’t want to look at, much less treat?

The answer is that psychological support is offered, but it’s often not enough. One nurse who has seen many of his patients die has a place where he stops each day to cry for the patients he has lost. Another says, "you just have to cram these loses down into some part of you and move on because there are six more people waiting for your help."

Today, if you’re the praying kind, send up some of your prayers for these suffering patients. These are men and women who once posed for pictures in their dress uniforms, healthy, proud, and energetic, and now lie suffering in spite of the best efforts of their physicians.

And pray for their caregivers. Those remarkably committed few who work in one of the hardest centers in any war: the burn unit. These people are among the many unsung and heroic caregivers who offer their healing presence to those whose lives are fragile and pain-filled. These are the people who, at this very moment, are finding the courage to stand close to the fires of war. They offer their love to heal the horror and hatred that has brought pain into the lives of so many.

During the Viet Nam War, Mother Theresa was asked if she would join an anti-war protest. "No," she said, "I will not march AGAINST. But if you want to march FOR peace, I will be glad to join you."

So today, add one more prayer to your list. Pray for peace.

Prayer Reflection:

Lord who is Love, bring your strength

to the suffering. Let the river of your

grace flow across the skin of the burned

to cool their pain. Bring your light into

the eyes of those who care for these

patients. Bless them, love them, bring

them the peace that comes only through

you.