Linda Stetter: Well, hello everyone! It's your own Chaplain Linda with another podcast for you today, and it's going to be on how our chapels are focuses of spiritual strength and sources of encouragement. Arthur Schlesinger, famous presidential historian, once said, "Science and technology revolutionize our lives, but memory, tradition, and myth frame our response." every culture and every family has shared memories and stories about how they have come to be who and where they are. The tradition of handing down this knowledge helps people feel a sense of belonging and identity.

Today, I will share a story about how hospitals came to have chapels and how the chapel and meditation rooms in our own hospital are part of a long tradition that provides space for caregivers, patients, and families to pause, to honor memories and faith traditions that help them keep their sense of identity, emotional equilibrium, and faith connection in stressful times.

Once upon a time, about the year 1050, medieval people were making pilgrimages to holy sites. Monks and soldiers from the Order of St. John the Knights Hospitaller saw pilgrims' hunger and exhaustion. So, they started offering pilgrims simple suppers of soup and bread, plus a safe place to sleep, asking nothing in return. Later, the hospitallers realized that some of the pilgrims came with injuries. They began giving first aid. And voila! The first hospitals, non-profits like SJRMC, by the way, were born. The hospitallers understood a wider call to mission. Charitable care for those affected by leprosy, poverty, and other illnesses and vulnerabilities.

During the 12th and 13th centuries, the Order of Hospitallers set up the first large network of hospitals in the Eastern Mediterranean and across Europe. Those ancient hospitallers knew intuitively what we articulate as a central tenet in healthcare today. Hospital is rooted in hospitality. And people who need our care and compassion must feel that there is a welcome mat at the entrance for them, and furthermore, that they are welcome as whole persons whose traditions and cultures are equally welcome and honored as well.

It's clear that, from the very beginning, hospitals and churches as places of care have been inseparably intertwined. As the centuries passed, churches were built with hospital wards embedded within them, and the caregivers were not only physicians and laymen and women, but priests and religious women. Feeding the soul and spirit through worship and prayer integrated seamlessly with physical treatment for the body was the healing process. Recently, churches have been revamped into hospital wards. For example, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine was set up as a hospital ward to care for COVID-19 patients, and even small churches helped. The pastor of a small church in Homer, Alaska, preached outside his modest church, turned field hospital, to help manage the overflow of COVID patients.

Focus changes as social needs change. In modern times, the architecture of hospitals has changed from a worship style building to a secular building, with architecture being influenced by the amazing development of healing technology, equipment, and the most effective process flows of highly trained caregivers. However, the relationship between healing both body and spirit in the same space is still recognized as efficacious for complete healing and wholeness. The trend is to offer patients, visitors, and caregivers larger treatment areas and smaller sacred spaces called chapels or meditation rooms. SJRMC is very fortunate to have both types of these sacred spaces.

We have a modest, cozy chapel that is located on the west side of the hospital, just across from the bronze lady statue that guides us all. It's near the emergency room. and some of the testing areas. On each clinical floor, on the extreme southeast side of the hospital, at the end of each hall, there is a larger meditation room. We are very proud to offer these rooms that honor the centuries-old tradition of hospitality. They are designed to honor our local Native American culture as well. And we know that we all live and work in a stressful environment. So, having a space that provides a quiet, relaxing atmosphere to find a little peace and restoration of mind, body and spirit is indeed a gift. And it's a statement about how our thoughtful care at this hospital transcends physical, science-based treatment to include the whole person.

Now, that COVID is waning, our chapel and meditation rooms are reopened 24/7 for quiet prayer and reflection by any caregiver or patient or family. Patients who are not infectious and who are either ambulatory, or can be brought to the chapel or meditation room in a wheelchair with the charge nurse's permission are welcome to have some respite from the confines of their hospital room with all those bright lights and ongoing beeping and people and equipment noise in the hall.

Every hospital chapel is unique. Our chapel especially has been designed to feel welcoming to persons of all faith traditions or no faith tradition. It is truly a space where common ground can be experienced. The cushy but firm seats form an oval like a chapter house, and the whole room is visible from any seat. The woodwork is a warm color, and the wall colors are soothing. The flooring is carpet, which results in quiet steps. A simple round altar table accents the middle of the room, but there is still plenty of space for prayer rugs or other sacramentals that may be needed. In our era of plurality of belief systems, all are welcome in our chapel to meditate alone or perhaps to pray with a friend, family members, or the chaplain. Holy books of various traditions are stocked for the taking. And during various liturgical seasons, the chapel is decorated and becomes a space of joy, delight, and blessing.

Hospital chapels always incorporate a design that brings the outdoors and light inside. Two recent additions to our chapel add dimensions of light. On October 26, 2022, our chapel was rededicated to honor the work of Brenda Goodnight and John Nichols, along with Stevie Lassiter, who created and installed stained glass windows in the chapel. Funded by our own SJRMC Auxiliary, and guided by Suzanne Smith, our former Chief Nursing Officer, and Reverend Todd Smith, a former chaplain, the windows depict the natural sights that uplift and sustain our spirits here in the Four Corners. Mountain views, streams and rivers, blooming cacti, and even a three-dimensional stained glass tree. One can look at the windows often and always see something new, especially as the sunlight changes throughout the day. In December 2023, a new addition came from a generous donation by modernist Albuquerque artist Helga Folken. Her creation, Moon Doves, is a three-dimensional depiction of sky, moon, and doves in flight. It is positioned near the stained glass, so there is a fascinating interplay between both works of art, as the doves seem to be flying through reflections of the trees in the stained glass.

This podcast is an invitation for you to visit our chapel soon and often as a place for centering your spirit and taking respite from the busyness of the secular world. As the medieval pilgrims learned to receive help and hospitality of the chapels, I hope that all of you listening to this podcast will also enjoy receiving the peace, serenity, joy, and spiritual refreshment that our chapel and meditation spaces offer.

In our world, receiving is as important as giving, so that we can keep ourselves strong and happy for our daily work. American poet Robert Louis Stevenson wrote, "Every heart that has beat strongly and cheerfully has left a hopeful impulse behind it in the world and bettered the tradition of mankind." I hope that the upcoming months can be a time of recognizing our heartbeats full of hopeful impulses for bettering the traditions of mankind by integrating physical and spiritual healing.

So, thanks for joining me via this podcast today and I hope to see you soon in person in either the chapel or one of the meditation rooms. Take care and God bless.