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.

Days 76-77 – What is Our Personal Covenant?

"Covenantal relationships reflect unity and grace and poise. They are an expresson of the sacred nature of relationships." – Max DuPree

   What is the promise we make to ourselves in this life? What pact do we have hidden in our heart – the one we have with God?

   It's a hard question. We enter this earth by Providence. We are born bearing gifts within us including, most crucially, the gift of God's Love.

   Gradually, we make promises to ourselves – to tell the truth, to help others, to do our best, to live with integrity. Perhaps we promised ourselves long ago that we would find someone we loved and to join with the that person in a new covenantal relationship.

   How are we doing keeping the covenants we have made? Some relationships are certain to crack apart under the strain of our lives in this world. Other relationships have endured. New ones are formed.

   When are relationships are informed with Love, they will be always be sacred.  That is the promise offered to us by our fellow caregivers.

   We can, of course, invite any one of our colleagues to become our acquaintances or our friends. To create a sacred covenant requires a deeper decision.

   Deep relationships involve a level of trust, sharing and vulnerability that can be both joyful and excruciating. When we perceive betrayal, we may feel humiliated for the secrets our former partner knows about us. When we are able to sustain a trusting covenant, we will know the finest joy life has to offer.

   The quality of covenants we are able to form depends first and formost on the Love we have found within ourselves. Do we accept God's Love for us? If so, we can Love others. If not, our friendships will be as fragile any frayed filament – at risk for breaking when subjected to the slightest pressure.

  Patients come to us because they trust we will honor our covenant to give them our best skill and effort. It is when we have a true covenant with God's Love that we can offer them something more. This is the gift of healing.

-Erie Chapman

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7 responses to “Days 76-77 – What is Our Personal Covenant?”

  1. Dea DeWitt Avatar
    Dea DeWitt

    Hi Rev. Chapman,
    As usual, well said! I use your reflections regularly in a weekly meeting with nursing staff at the Cancer Center here at Hartford Hospital. I am very glad that my CPE supervisor recommended your blog to us some while ago. Your words helped me to deepen my relationship with the staff, and open up further issues in their lives.
    So thank you, and please keep writing!
    Dea+

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  2. ann kaiser Avatar
    ann kaiser

    I reflect on Covenants made and lost. The ones made and kept are joys and gifts from God that nuture me and sustain me and I look forward to sharing that Love. It is the covenants lost for reasons unknown to me in my work place that burden my heart. I work in an enviroment where I am ignored and shamed by some not returning my hello’s or even looking at me. I have been alienated from my team for sometime and the nurt it brings me on a daily basis seems more than I can bear . I strive to pretend that I am fine. It is in these moments that I know it is my love for God and the Grace he gives me to continue giving out hello’s and smiles and to go to those covenants that sustain me to come back tomorrow. I return with prayers for healing for my patients and for myself .

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  3. ~liz Wessel Avatar
    ~liz Wessel

    Ann you shine such a beautiful Light and I am saddened that this is what you experience. Perhaps, Erie crystallized the message…if we are unable to love ourselves, how can we love others? Those who behave in this way are struggling with a lack of self love.You have the capacity for great love.
    Today’s reflection invites us into meaningful reflection. In the context of nursing, I have often made unspoken covenants with terminally ill patients, which was “I will not abandon you.”
    In my relationships, what comes to mind is the beautiful “anam cara” or soul friendship that John O’Donohue so eloquently described. St. Patrick’s Day is a most fitting day to contemplate the meaning of an anam cara friend. As O’ Donohue said, “An anam cara friendship cuts across all convention, morality and category. You are joined in an ancient and eternal way with the friend of your soul. The Celtic understanding does not set limitations of space or time on the soul. There is no cage for the soul. The soul is a divine light that flows into you and into the other.”
    What a profound thought you offer, Erie, “The quality of covenants we are able to form depends first and foremost on the Love we have found within ourselves…” When I really consider this deeper meaning I realize how vulnerable it is to open one’s heart and also that it is the only real way. Perhaps, that is what Jesus meant when he said, “The only way to the Father is through me” (not a literal interpretation) but the way of Love.

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  4. ~liz Wessel Avatar
    ~liz Wessel

    and once again I just had to share this by John…
    “The heart is the inner face of your life. The human journey strives to make this inner face beautiful. It is here that love gathers within you. Love is absolutely vital for a human life. For love alone can awaken what is divine within you. In love, you grow and come home to your self. When you learn to love and let yourself be loved, you come home to the hearth of your own spirit. You are warm and sheltered.”
    ~John O’Donohue

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  5. ann kaiser Avatar
    ann kaiser

    Thank you Liz and Erie for the gift of Love and the reminder that we are given a light to shine. As the song goes, ” This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine. Hide it under a bushel..no! I’m going to let it shine.”
    Perhaps I have been allowing the broken covenants to overshawdow the Love that is here. May unity and grace continue to give light for those in the hidden places of one their heart.

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  6. Marily Avatar
    Marily

    “When we are able to sustain a trusting covenant, we will know the finest joy life has to offer”…. 🙂

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  7. ~liz Wessel Avatar
    ~liz Wessel

    Ann I dedicate this to you and the radiant Light you shine!
    Sabbath Blessings
    Eternal Lamp of Love,
    remind me often of how much radiance comes
    from the glow of one small candle flame.
    When my spiritual window is heavily clouded,
    and your abiding love seems far from me,
    restore my belief in your vibrant presence.
    When I doubt my ability to be a bearer of your light,
    shine your truth and wisdom into my faltering spirit.
    Radiant Star in my heart,
    in every generation you pass into holy souls.
    Thank you for the illuminated beings
    who have touched my life with their goodness.
    Your light shining through them has inspired me
    and filled me with spiritual energy.
    Assure me that I can also be a Light-bearer for others,
    a clear window of your eternal starlight.
    Stir and whirl your dynamic presence in my being.
    Stream your loving kindness through me.
    I will open my mind and heart to your presence
    as you greet me in the unexpected and the challenging.
    I, too, can make a difference in my world
    because of your radiant light shining through me.
    I am ready to pay the price for transparency.
    May my desire for deeper union with you be realized.
    – Joyce Rupp, Prayers to Sophia

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