Pastoral & Prayer Support
Christine E. Perry, M.A., L.U.T.
805-331-1122
www.Partners-in-Truth.com
Christine@Partners-in-Truth.com
God and Prayer Are Everywhere
It was May 14, Saturday night at 11:45. I was at Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital Emergency in a curtained examining room with my daughter Sally who was receiving medical care. We were startled by the sound of doors crashing open and a man screaming, “Help him! You’ve got to help him!” In the hall I saw a man holding his bleeding friend in his arms, releasing him onto the floor, where he lie motionless, a innocent victim of a brutal stabbing.As a unit the medical staff rallied around the young injured man, carried him into Room 1 and began administering intensive life-saving procedures on him. Sally and I were instructed to stay right where we were in Room 2; just 3 feet away from the wounded man with only a thin curtain separating us.
I felt myself intuitively drop into prayer. A Silence descended, graciously muting the sounds of breathing machine, the beep of the blood pressure/pulse monitor, the voices of the medics, and the cries of the family. I recognized it as the Silence of God’s Infinite Love enfolding us in a state of complete Compassion. Holding Sally’s hand, we prayed as we witnessed the life force leaving his body; someone’s son, someone’s brother; someone’s friend. We prayed for him; we prayed for his family; we prayed for the Highest Good. I felt blessed to be a Prayer Minister and to be there at that moment doing what God had put before me to do. There are no coincidences.
God and Prayer were everywhere present: in Room 1 guiding the Medical team, in the hall calming the visitors and other patients, in the waiting room where family and friends stood vigil. Prayer became each person’s common medium through which to do their own unique part in the unfolding of this man’s experience. We were united now; all of us Ministers of Prayer. We were One in the Presence.
For over an hour the medical team, true Angels of Mercy, put their full, loving expertise and attention on a complete stranger, not concerned as to his color, creed or character. He was a human being; he was of our Family.
At 1:04 a.m. on Sunday May 15, I felt a lifting of Spirit as I bore witness to our young man’s last lifebreath. I gave thanks to God for our beloved young soul’s release from the struggle and for his transition to the realm of Peace and Love. From behind the emergency room curtain to behind the veil, the journey was now complete. I felt humbled that I was one of the few chosen to be a part of the intimacy of the death of a once stranger, but who now, in one infinite hour, had become a beloved friend who dwells
forever in my heart.Sally and I left the ER silent and stunned from the experience. We stepped out into the night and my teardrops merged with the cleansing rain that softly fell upon my face.
Peace & Blessings,
Maggie Keenan Svensson
Unity Prayer Minister