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BY: SR. PATRICIA A. TALONE, RSM, Ph.D.

Leader
Our health care ministry is engaged with our communities as provider, employer, advocate and citizen to build up the reign of God on Earth. Through our community benefit endeavors, we, together, strive to become better citizens and to extend Christ's healing mission. Let's reflect upon what it means to build community.

READER 1
When we work for the common good, we experience each other in new ways. We don't worry about differences, or status, or traditional power relationships. We worry about whether we'll succeed in accomplishing what needs to be done. We focus on the work, not on each other. We learn what trust is. We learn the necessity of good communication.1

RESPONSE (all)
Let your work be seen by your servants, and your glory by their children;

And may the gracious care of the Lord our God be ours, prosper the work of our hands for us, prosper the work of our hands. (Psalm 90:16-17)

READER 2
Working for something beyond ourselves teaches us about the human spirit. It's easy to feel hopeful about people after one of these experiences. But when we serve others, we gain more than hope. We gain energy — energy pours into our bodies through our open hearts and generous spirits.2

RESPONSE (all)
Let your work be seen by your servants, and your glory by their children;

And may the gracious care of the Lord our God be ours, prosper the work of our hands for us, prosper the work of our hands. (Psalm 90:16-17)

READER 3
People are the solution to the problems that confront us. Technology is not the solution, although it can help. We are the solution — we as generous, open-hearted people who want to use our creativity and caring on behalf of other human beings in all life.3

RESPONSE (all)
Let your work be seen by your servants, and your glory by their children;

And may the gracious care of the Lord our God be ours, prosper the work of our hands for us, prosper the work of our hands. (Psalm 90:16-17)

LEADER
Let's recall the neighborhoods in which we work, the persons who join us in our work, the persons whom we serve. Please share aloud those activities or projects in which colleagues in our system are currently engaged.

Allow time for participants to share aloud.

We know that together we can do far more than we can alone, and relying upon God's love and mercy, we will have what we need to build the reign of God, we say together the words Jesus taught us.

ALL
Recite The Lord's Prayer

Sr. Patricia Talone, RSM, Ph.D.
Vice President, Mission Services
Catholic Health Association

NOTES

1. Margaret Wheatley, Turning to One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope to the Future (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2002): 126.
2. Wheatley, 127.
3. Wheatley, 19.

Copyright © 2008 by the Catholic Health Association of the United States.
For reprint permission, contact Betty Crosby or call (314) 253-3477.