Learning the Ministry of Presence

We offer spiritual care by attending to each other. By attending, I mean truly being with – or in attendance – with another. When we attend to each other we offer a listening presence, a peaceful presence, a healing presence. 

Think for a moment about the hurry scurry of our world, especially if you work in a hospital, a busy office, or a big factory. Is there not a need for us to attend to each other, whether we are patients, visitors, staff, or visitors?

In the midst of whatever it is that is happening in our lives, how wonderful to be offered that place where we are heard, where we feel peace, where healing of our spirit may occur. And how great a gift of God it is to be able to offer such gifts to our brothers and sisters by attending to them. So how do we acquire these gifts so that they may be offered?

The answer is simple. We can develop these gifts by our own attending – attending to our prayers, attending in the silence, learning to “be still and know that I am God.” Paul said that in “all things, pray without ceasing.” When we meet someone who is immersed in prayer, who attends to God – that is, waits upon the One who made us – we meet an individual who radiates peace. Such an individual can attend on others, sometimes without even being aware of it.

A psychiatric nurse tells the story of a hospital worker she knows. She says that when he is on the ward the patients appear more peaceful, and that this change is especially noticeable when previously there had been tension on the unit. She says that even patients who do not see him, who are in their rooms behind closed doors, have become more peaceful when he walks down the hall. She adds that he had no idea that he brought such peace to people. The hospital worker the nurse told me about spends a lot of time in prayer and contemplation.

I have met individuals such as this person. They are people who radiate peace. Their peacefulness attends on those around them. These people also spend time in prayer. We know that the presence of Jesus had a profound impact on people. We also know that He spent time in prayer, in communion wit His Father. 

Joel Goldsmith, an American mystic, says that we must routinely “tabernacle” with Creator, allowing ourselves to be touched by Divine power and presence so that we may be more Christ-like. Goldsmith, who died about 40 years ago, taught that the best prayer was one for a realization, that is, a personal experience, of God’s power and presence. That experience could come in the silence he urged people to observe following prayer, or at some time later when least expected. 

Jesus has called on us to be in the world but not of it. A Muslim mystic wrote about the same thing when he described being in the marketplace, and involved in buying and selling, yet never for an instant forgetting Allah (Allah is the Arabic word for God). 

When we continually remember God, we are still in the world but not of it. Through our remembrance we find the peace, the stillness, the assurance of Divine power and presence in our lives. But to remember God when we go about our business is difficult. It is a challenge that becomes easier when we take the time to step back from our activities for intentional prayer and silence.

Prayer, silence, remembrance are vital spiritual practices for the disciple who seeks to attend on others. If we are faithful in following these practices we find we have much to offer when we attend to others – and we know that is not we who are doing anything, but the spirit of Almighty God dwelling and working in us.