Catholic Health Association of Manitoba

02/09/2024

Day 5 National Catholic Health Care Week

02/08/2024

National Catholic Health Care Week Thursday, February 8

Signs of Hope: Well-being

Perhaps you have to have a little bit of hope to believe that beauty can be found, to believe that life does come back, that something can surprise you. And maybe hope and wonder are somehow related. Maybe wonder feeds hope and hope feeds wonder.

You see something beautiful and it
reminds you that it's possible to see something beautiful.

The World Health Organization defines well-being as encompassing quality of life, as well as the ability we have to contribute to the world in accordance with our sense of meaning and purpose. In Catholic social teaching, human development includes the wellbeing of each person, encompassing the health,
economic, spiritual and social dimensions of life.

Across Canada, Catholic health works with many partners to address complex system and social challenges, drawing on gospel values and a legacy of innovation. Committed to social justice, we are called to bring together the health and social supports Canadians need to live and age well in community.

This is a mission of hope-a powerful force in individual well-being and human flourishing. Pope Francis reminds us that hope cannot be optimistically naïve nor dismissive of the brokenness we encounter in our world. Instead, "Hope is the virtue of a heart that doesn't lock itself into darkness, that doesn't dwell on the past, does not simply get by in the present, but is able to see a tomorrow."

"Hope is the door that opens onto the future. Hope is a humble, hidden seed of life that, with time, will develop into a large tree. It is like some invisible yeast that allows the whole dough to grow, that brings flavour to all aspects of life."

Let us reflect

1. In what ways has your organization or community worked to help people flourish?
2. In our care and interactions, how might we help others to be "able to see a tomorrow"?

Let us pray

To the One who created us,
and who teaches us to love, and who walks with us.
Fan the flame of hope that has been given us
Help us to gain new strength and certainty
By looking to the future
with an open spirit and trusting heart.
May we learn from wonder and nurture astonishment.
May we live, love, dream, believe, and, with the Grace of God, flourish and grow.
Amen

02/07/2024

CATHOLIC HEALTH AWARENESS WEEK Wednesday, February 7

Signs of Hope: Compassion and Healing

When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand.

In the Catholic tradition, we understand human life as the integration of body, mind and spirit and see each person as a unique and sacred with intrinsic dignity and worth. Healing touches all dimensions of being human-and encompasses the whole person in their search for meaning,
health, wholeness and well-being. The poet Stephen Levine observed that "to heal is touch with love that which we previously touched with fear."

Compassion-to endure with others and encounter and walk with suffering-is at the heart of healing, for ourselves and with the people we love and care for.

Compassion is central to hope. "We are all fragile and vulnerable, and need that compassion which knows how to pause, approach, heal, and raise up," writes Pope Francis in his Message for the World Day of the Sick 2023. In his writings on hope, Pope Francis describes compassion as a living act of love and service: "A word, a caress, but given from the heart; this is
compassion for the one who needs comfort and consolation.

This is more important than ever:
Christian hope cannot do without genuine and concrete charity." Walking with others is a journey of openness, learning and action. It calls us to seek out and draw on tradition, language, ways of knowing and healing practices that foster connection, kinship, relationship and community. It calls us to create sacred space in our care environments, our communities and in ourselves for all to find healing and hope.

Let us reflect

1. What does compassion that "knows how to pause, approach, heal and raise up" mean to you?
Which of these characteristics of compassion resonate most with you and why?

2. What concrete actions can we take to create sacred space for healing and hope?

Let us pray

Loving God,
Open our eyes that we may see you in all our sisters and brothers. Open our minds that we may understand their hopes and dreams, their sorrows and pain, their longing.

Open our hearts to give generously of ourselves.

Grant us wisdom to respond effectively with grace and compassion. Give us the courage to speak and act in true peace, love, mercy and human solidarity.
Amen

02/06/2024

National Catholic Healthcare Week - Day 2

Signs of Hope: Belonging and Community

Human life is not meant to be lived in isolation. To be fully human, we must live in community. We strive through our hospitality to give people the strength, comfort and consolation of hope.
Joseph Cardinal Bernardin (1995).

A Sign of Hope:
Pastoral Letter on Healthcare Our Catholic tradition teaches us that each of us is not only sacred, but social. We hope to find fulfillment, a sense of belonging and purpose, in our association with others— and in the ways that we organize ourselves as a society to foster growth, protect dignity and the promote the common good.

Along with communities and many different partners, Catholic health works to achieve a Canadian society that reaches out to every person who is suffering from illness, stigma, poverty or loneliness. As we work together for a just society, the problems and situations we encounterare complex and often heartbreaking.

Pope Francis encourages all of us—in whatever work we are called to do-to nurture and share the hope with in us each day as a healing force for community. "We all need each other. None of us is an island, an autonomous and independent "1," separated from the other," he said. "We can only build the future by standing together, including everyone.

A single individual is enough for hope to exist, and that individual can be you. And then there will be another you, and another you, and it turns into an us. And so, does hope begin when we have an us? No. Hope began with one you. When there is an us, there begins a revolution."?

In doing so, we come together as members of the human family-a family interconnected and interdependent-seeing ourselves in each other. With eyes and hearts open, may we step into the uncomfortable spaces and the possibilities.

Let us reflect

1. When have you seen hope spread person to person and what was the result?
2. What does "sharing hope" look like to you?

Let us pray

Spirit of God,
Inspire us to hope, Enable us to tend the seeds of hope in ourselves, That we may be sowers of hope in our human family--
one sacred moment and interaction at a time.
Amen

02/05/2024

National Catholic Healthcare Week

DAY 1- Monday, February 5
Signs of Hope:

Human Connection
In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.

The COVID-19 pandemic shone a public light on what's at the heart of our Catholic ministry: human dignity, compassion, the importance of human connection, and the meaning of wellbeing-body, mind
and spirit. As people with a mission to concretely share the healing love of God, we are called to signs of hope and compassion in a hurting post-pandemic world, where increasing numbers of people face isolation and loneliness and so many bend under the burdens of stress, fatigue, anxiety and depression.

As signs of hope, we are called to reconnect the broken pieces--to heal the hurts, mend the rifts and traverse the barriers we encounter between each other as people, and in our communities,
our social and health systems and our society. Those who study hope say it is not something you can build or borrow. It is something we have to experience or awaken through human connection and compassion. Human connection has been recognized in nursing, education, spirituality and psychology as important to cultivating hope.

Communication is key: being explicit about hope, sharing why we need it, when we feel we've lost it and how we might find it again. To be heard and understood opens the door. As we move on from a prolonged experience of distance and barriers, let's renew our focus on reaching
out, sparking life-giving connections in our lives, so that no one is ever left behind or without hope.

Let us reflect

1. How have the past years of the pandemic impacted your ideas about hope? 2. In our experiences of illness or caregiving, how might we spark or nurture hope through our human interactions?

Let us pray
Loving God, In difficult and lonely times, you do not leave us to fend for ourselves, but invite us into community with you and each other--heard, seen, understood, welcomed.

Knit us together as companions in this beautiful missionto see love, peace, and hope made known.
Amen.
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01/31/2024

National Catholic Healthcare week starts on February 4th through to the 10th.

Presentation by Dr. Harold Koenig
CHASaskatchewan will be hosting a Virtual Dr. Harold Koenig webinar (ranked in the top 10 best social researchers in the world). The desired outcome of this presentation is to highlight the value of religious practice as an important social determinant of health. Through 1000s of studies, Dr. Koenig's research demonstrates that religious practice correlates with positive health outcomes in every area of human well being including such things as decreased rates of depression, decreased suicides, increased rates of domestic stability, better physical health, and better academic performance of children.

01/15/2024

John Longhurst of the Winnipeg Free Press wrote about a campaign that I am working on entitled Mission: Assistance in Living. (MAiL).

MAiL is aimed at identifying, providing, improving and/or facilitating access to care and supports that advance the inherent dignity, security and fundamental equality of all persons— including persons with physical or mental illness, disability, or older age, as well as persons experiencing poverty, homelessness, isolation or a lack of care and support—in order to live with dignity, to flourish, and fully participate in society on an equal basis with others.

There is a critical need for us to re-ignite a life-affirming approach to the care and wellbeing of all Canadians based in shared values of the dignity of the human person.

I invite you now to read the article and invite you to sign the petition. I respectfully ask that you also share this email to your contacts in order to make a difference in the lives of those who need our support.
Click to view article: http://tinyurl.com/yozhf223

Click to sign the petition: https://chng.it/64jFyj2c6r

Improve Palliative Care and Mental Health Services in Canada

01/03/2024

Last chance to register for the Spiritual Care Mental Health Workshop occurring virtually on Jan. 9 & 24th from 5:30 pm to 8:30 pm. For more information and to register, click on this link:

Join us on January 10th & 24th - Joignez-nous les 10 et 24 janvier 2024

12/18/2023

4 signatures are still needed! Improve Palliative Care and Mental Health Services in Canada