Contemplative Spiritual Care

Verbatim
Caring for Danielle
 Contemplative Spiritual Care
Verbatim
I receive a referral to attend a pt. whom the
physician believes to me somatizing. He is at his
wits end. I make my way to the pt’s room in
“fear
and trembling” as I do not know how I may be
able to help her, if at all. I say a prayer to the
Spirit before knocking on her door.
 C1: Hello Danielle.
 P1: (She looks at me with eyes wide with
panic. Her breathing is rapid; she has the aid of
oxygen….The conversation is to the point).
 C2: Danielle, I’m not sure if I can help you but
I know that sometimes if we go into our fear –
there is a light in the darkness.
 P2: (She nods her head)
 C3: Okay… I’m going to ask you questions
and you can simply answer what ever comes
into your mind
 P3 (She agrees).
 C4: Before we start, I think it a good idea if we
pray to the Spirit to guide us, (pt. is okay with
this and a brief prayer follows. I am aware of
the risk of faith; a sense of self abandonment).
 C5: I begin to ask rapid questions (focusing on
the immediacy of patient’s experience).
 P5: (The pt’s responses encompass the
following:
 P6: …I am afraid to go to sleep
 P7: …I may not wake up

 P8:… I may die

 C8: (We continue to talk but it is as if this
conversation recedes into the background. I
become aware of an image arising out the
immediacy of my embodied sensation):
Danielle, as you are talking, an image of the
crossroads has arisen for me; it is as if all your
energy is being pulled in the one direction to
let go and yet it is as if all of your energy is
being pulled in the other direction to remain.
 P9: Yes, I’m at the Crossroads! I’m at the Cross
roads! (Her eyes are wide with comprehension)
Can you tell my husband for me?
 C9: Of course, (thinking it odd that she would
wish me to do this for her. Her spouse and her
were childhood sweethearts and enjoyed a
strong marriage with good communication
skills).
 C1: (I met with the spouse, Joseph, in my
office one evening. I was aware of my own
psychic tiredness that day. I shared with him
what had happened with Danielle and that she
was at the Crossroads).
 S1: What do I need to be for her? I have been
strong, like a rock…she wanted this from me.
What do I do?
 C2: (I remember talking and suddenly this
inspiration inserted itself in the conversation):
Be for her whatever she needs you to be for
her.
 S2: (He repeated), be for her whatever she
needs me to be for her.
 Upon returning to the unit a few days later I
found that the pt. was close to death; her
physician and the nursing staff were surprised
that she had declined so rapidly. It was as if
she had surrendered her will.
 I entered her room and all was peaceful inside.
Her spouse was seated by her bed. The patient
was non-responsive.
 S3: Hello Zinia. (The spouse appeared
peaceful). He then began to share with me the
continuation of the process began during the
spiritual care encounters):
 She asked me, “Did Zinia speak with you?” I
told her, yes, that you did. She asked me what
did you tell me? I told her that you said she
was at the crossroads and she agreed that she
was. And then I told her, “I can be for you,
Danielle, whatever you need me to be for
you.” And then she looked at me and asked,
“Can you let me go, please?”
Contemplative Spiritual Care
 As Companions to the Dying
 We also engage Impasse
 We too can embrace contemplative spiritual
postures in the Movement toward
Transcendence
 We also may be gifted with the Experience of
Transcendence & Insight in the Experience of
Transcendence in service to the patient’s
need.
 Encountering Impasse
I receive a referral to
attend
a pt. whom the physician
believes to me somatizing.
He is at his wits end.

I do not know how I may

be able to help her, if at
all.
 Encountering Impasse

 The mind, while full on

one level of a lifetime of
knowledge, is in total
darkness on another, the
level of meaning.

Fitzgerald, 1986b, p.445.

Movement Toward Transcendence:
Kenosis

 Choosing to empty out

 Zen Story of the Cup
Movement Toward Transcendence:
Kenosis

In order to arrive
at knowing
everything,
Desire to know
nothing.

St. John of the Cross,

Ascent of Mount Carmel
Movement Toward Transcendence:
Kenosis
[Kenosis is]...to empty
ourselves…of those
convictions and
prejudices, hopes and
distractions, which
usually accompany us
and can short-circuit the
reflective process. [It
means] suspending
interpretation and
judgment until we have
thoroughly heard.

Whitehead and Whitehead

Method in Ministry 73.
Movement Toward Transcendence:
Kenosis
Kenosis is a
meditative
discipline that
allows one to
attend to the inner
movements in
oneself and to lay
aside what
distracts from
receptivity of
other/Other
Movement Toward Transcendence:
Kenosis
To adopt a
standpoint of
Exploration or quest

Hoping that one will

be able to relate to
Reality, as it really is.

Killen & DeBeer,

The Art of Theological
Reflection, 4-11
Movement Toward Transcendence
…one must learn to act by not acting and to
know by not knowing: to have one desire
alone which is not really a desire but a kind of
desirelessness, an openness, a habitual
freedom in the sense of self-abandonment, a
realization that all God asks is ‘that you turn
your attention to Him, and then let Him alone.’
Mystics and Zen Masters,138.
Movement Toward Transcendence
 I say a prayer to the
Spirit before knocking on
her door…
 C4: Before we start, I
think it a good idea if we
pray to the Spirit to guide
us, (pt. is okay with this
and a brief prayer
follows. I am aware of
the risk of faith; a sense
of self abandonment).
 Movement Toward Transcendence
Faith

 To chose to move into

the Mystery which is
unimaginable,
incomprehensible and
uncontrollable
Movement Toward Transcendence
Hope

 forfeiting the
struggle to press
meaning out of
loss, becomes a free,
trustful commitment
to the impossible
 Movement Toward Transcendence:
Love
 Our abandonment to
[Transcendence] must be
to the point of complete
detachment from all
desire to give [patients]
any particular directive
or insight as well as from
any desire for immediate
and tangible solutions to
difficulties…

Nemeck & Coombs, 86

Movement Toward Transcendence:
Love
 Love prevents us from
forcing the loved one into
the constraints of our
needs ….
 It continues to serve
others, [without the
satisfaction or
gratification of having
helped, resolved,
changed, made a
difference, fixed].

Constance Fitzgerald
 Experience of Transcendence
 C8: (We continue to talk but
it is as if this conversation
recedes into the background.
I become aware of an image
arising out the immediacy
of my embodied sensation):
Danielle, as you are talking,
an image of the crossroads
has arisen for me
 Experience of Transcendence
We read (Lectio)

Under the eye of God (Meditatio)

Until the heart is touched (Oratio)

And leaps to flame

(Contemplatio)

Thelma Hall,
Too Deep for Words, 44.
 Experience of Transcendence
Said a traveler to one of his disciples, “I have
traveled a great distance to listen to the Master, but
I find his words quite ordinary.”
“Don’t listen to his words. Listen to his message.”
“How does one do that?”
“Take hold of a sentence that he says. Shake it
well till all the words drop off. What is left will set your
heart on fire.”

Anthony de Mello. Meaning.

 The Gift of Insight in the
Experience of Transcendence
 C2: I remember talking
and suddenly this
inspiration inserted itself
in the conversation: Be
for her whatever she
needs you to be for her.
 The Gift of Insight in the
Experience of Transcendence
 S3: And then I told her,
“I can be for you,
Danielle, whatever you
need me to be for you.”
And then she looked at
me and asked, “Can you
let me go, please?”
 The Gift of Insight in the
Experience of Transcendence

…the delusion of
separation is dispelled;
slowly one consciously
realizes and enjoys the
essential union that has
always been present.

Gerald May. The Dark

Night of the Soul, 74
 The Gift of Insight in the
Experience of Transcendence
 Insight/enlightenment]
discernment flows out of
Loving-Transcendent
interchange with us and
subtly impresses itself
upon our consciousness.
It is like opening our
eyes, and there it is. We
are awakened to it.

Nemeck & Coombs, 93.

 The Gift of Insight in the
Experience of Transcendence
The quality of
paradox is at the heart
of ‘second order
change.’ It implies
the unexpected, the
alternative, the new
vision, is not given on
demand but is
beyond conscious,
rational control.
Fitzgerald 2.
This material is for educational use in the
promotion of professional practice.
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© Zinia Pritchard 2010