Journal of Sacred Work

Caregivers have superpowers! Radical Loving Care illuminates the divine truth that caregiving is not just a job. It is Sacred Work.

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Former President & CEO of multiple hospital systems and founding president & CEO of 20-hospital OhioHealth, best selling author, film artist, ordained minister, composer, published poet, syndicated T.V. host, trial attorney, federal prosecutor and Municipal Court Judge. Erie is internationally known as the founder of the Radical Loving Care(R)movement. He also heads Erie Chapman Foundation, Dane Dakota Productions, LLC, and Chapman Health International, Inc.

Recent Posts

About

Former President & CEO of multiple hospital systems and founding president & CEO of 20-hospital OhioHealth, best selling author, film artist, ordained minister, composer, published poet, syndicated T.V. host, trial attorney, federal prosecutor and Municipal Court Judge. Erie is internationally known as the founder of the Radical Loving Care(R)movement. He also heads Erie Chapman Foundation, Dane Dakota Productions, LLC, and Chapman Health International, Inc.

Day 290 – Our Soul’s Voice & Ego’s Noise

"All holiness is about learning to hear the voice of your own soul." – John O'Donohue

Soul
    On many occasions, I experience myself speaking and writing as if I knew more than what I know. Perhaps, what is going on is a desire, shared by all who try to remain open and alive, to discover more by seeking to express the inexpressible. The act of trying appears to nudge the door ajar. But, what of the act of listening?

    This is the challenge of understanding the soul. O'Donohue, whose writing has suddenly riveted my attention, writes that the voice of the soul is "deeper and surer than all the other voices of disappointment, unease, self-criticism and bleakness." Why wouldn't we want to listen primarily to this voice?

   The difficulty appears to come from the noise that arrives from the everyday world. This noise appeals to our egos. Our ego (personality) is formed in the world and may block us from appreciating the soul's voice that speaks with more serenity. 

   Our ego is flooded with the world's rules. Our soul is shaped and informed only by Love. Our ego demands performance and raise. Our soul lives free of fear.

   Does our soul speak "surer" because it lives free from our ego's noise? 

   For caregivers, everyday work life is drenched in clatter. We can make sense of our daily storms only if our consciousness is informed by our souls. The soul provides serenity. To ignore the wisdom of the soul risks living a passionless and meaningless life. 

   The most healing caregivers sustain their focus on the needs of the patient before them. In doing this, the window to Love slides open allowing the richest light to enter and to heal.

   As O'Donohue writes, "The voice of compassion is not absorbed with itself…it is imbued…with healing." This is the voice the vulnerable need to hear through us. This is the voice of Love.

-Erie Chapman

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4 responses to “Day 290 – Our Soul’s Voice & Ego’s Noise”

  1. ~liz Wessel Avatar
    ~liz Wessel

    What an informing quote by O’Donohue, which I am grateful to receive, and thank you for your reflections, as I feel doubly blessed. When we speak about the matters of the heart, the process is primarily a thinking function of our mind. So inevitably, we find ourselves in our head rather than our heart. Yet, I do believe there is value in engaging with one another about these matters, as our thoughts are the precursors of our actions in the world. Hence, it seems to me that it is helpful to fill our minds with seeds of Loving thoughts. My prayer is to experience “metanoia” a change of heart, and to be open to healing from all the noise that keeps me from living the “Grace of God” in each moment. (Rosaries of Divine Union, Fr. Michael Adams) For as I heal, so you heal.
    For me, this yearning and reaching towards Love is learning to let go of cycles of patterned behaviors that keep me cut off from my heart center. Listening to the voice of the soul offers guidance in every situation we only need only listen. Fr. Michael encourages, “We have but to reach, and however far we can stretch it is enough-for Love knows no distance or time. We only have to reach.”

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  2. Orlando Castillo Avatar
    Orlando Castillo

    “Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.” —Lao-Tze

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  3. Julie Laverdiere Avatar
    Julie Laverdiere

    We all do have the inner voice. It is a puzzle at times when I can’t hear it well enough to guide me from within. It must be my ego then, wanting some praise or prize of some kind. The inner voice, the soul, it there when we stop to listen. I pray often just to stop and hear what my soul wants me to do, and not to compare with others. The soul can always tell you the choice which is loving and good. It is my ego that thinks I know better.

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  4. Victoria Facey Avatar
    Victoria Facey

    What a beautiful phrase about the window to Love sliding open to allow the richest light to enter and heal.
    I hope to encounter this feeling…

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