We’re at the midpoint of our Year of Hope journey, where we offer moments to pause, reflect, and reconnect with our purpose while looking forward to the future.
Hope unites us and can be the catalyst for powerful, positive change – both personal and communal. Building on the momentum of our Year of Kindness, SSM Health introduced the Year of Hope to inspire team members, providers, and those around us to spread good news throughout our health ministry and communities. To face our challenges with faith and optimism, the Year of Hope offers us moments to pause, reflect, and connect with our purpose while looking forward to the future with expectation.
This month we’ve reached the midpoint of our yearlong journey and will turn our focus to hope for God’s healing presence.
Faith makes us open to the quiet presence of God at every moment of our lives, in every person and in every situation.” – Pope Francis
At SSM Health, we believe in the healing power of presence. We know that exceptional health care is more than medicine and tending solely to the physical body. Rather, it is how we choose to care for our patients and customers: by taking the time to listen, to understand, to answer questions, to hold hands, or even to pray. These are the moments when we reveal God’s healing presence in a powerful and enduring way. Even in the darkest moments and most challenging seasons of life, the hope of God's healing presence can offer a balm for wounded spirits and a renewal of weary souls. This is why we say that our health ministry offers more than a career; it fills a calling.
Let’s take a few moments to pause in prayer, self-reflect, and take action. Our journey of hope continues:
I have hope for God’s healing presence
Reflection
Lord,
We come to you today, with many things on our minds.
Our lives, our health ministries, and our world can feel unsteady as challenging times touch our communities affecting our lives in many ways.
We ask you to be with us this day, helping us to be present to all those we serve. In difficult moments, help us to remember those who came before us, founding the health ministries in which we now work.
Let us be filled with their sense of service and their faith, so that we may continue courageously in this time.
We offer up the work of this day, that it might bring your Presence, to our communities in need.
Bless each of us, bless all those we serve and bless the health ministry of SSM Health.
Amen
Self-reflective questions
- How am I caring for others in their time of need?
- How do I reveal the healing presence of God to others?
Cultivating Hope
- Think about a time when you experienced a miracle in your life – share your story with other people.
- Identity opportunities to be fully present to others – both at work and home.
