Chalices and Commodes

Would you ask for a chaplain in hospital? I would come and be glad to visit.  I was sent this podcast In the hospital. and it made me start thinking about my gladness.

Yesterday, on a Sunday afternoon, I was taking communion to the bedsides of patients. Every so often there is a room that is in isolation. So I stop and don a yellow gown and gloves and sometimes a mask. While doing this I have to put the chalice and the cibororium down somewhere. Rarely is there a handy table near the door. So instead I must place the silver vessels filled with consecrated bread and wine on carts covered with hospital goods. Yesterday the top shelf was full so I had to put everything on a lower shelf. So, right next to a commode sat the body and blood of Christ. All waiting for a patient in need. All intimate. In our church building we spend so much time making worship shiny and beautiful. I often wonder about that and wonder how I find myself glad to be a Chaplain.  I am ever grateful for my work showing me the healing walk of Jesus. I think his feet would have needed washing. Christ is present in our most intimate private moments, making the unpleasant and the messy divine. I feel the embrace of the spirit with the patients, as they offer me trust and their stories, showing me their faith and mine and something, or someone, I often cannot find in our church buildings.