THREE MINUTES A DAY - June 6, 2009

A Chaplain of all Orders

A hospital chaplain prays with the sick and their families and loved ones as well as with the hospital staff. That’s what the Rev. Margaret Muncie, the only full-time chaplain at Manhattan’s St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital and one of the first women ordained an Episcopal priest, does now.

But in 1996, doctors removed a benign tumor from her brain. The day after the surgery she had a stroke. Today Rev. Muncie walks with a “lurching limp” thanks to a neurostimulator on her right leg. She says her experience informs her ministry, and adds, “Well doesn’t mean perfect. But wholeness and healing can happen, even when there is still brokenness on the outside.”

No one of us is perfect, physically, mentally, spiritually, or emotionally. But we can listen to and pray with and for everyone we know – and those we only hear about.

The Lord... will not let your foot be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber... The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all evil; He will keep your life. (Psalm 121:2,3,6-7)

Don’t let us be afraid to minister to others out of our brokenness and weakness, Holy God.