What is Spiritual Care?
A Deck for Pondering the Mystery
Pilgrim by Ann Kronlokken Widness
I spent this summer completing my first Clinical Pastoral Education unit (CPE). One unit is 400 hours of classroom and experience hours. This is required by my seminary and synod as part of my formation to become ordained in the ELCA.
Practically, my unit looked like 8 hours each week in class with my cohort of five learners and our educator, 1 hour of one-on-one supervision, and the rest of my CPE hours were fulfilled each week by visiting the hospital, nursing homes, care facilities and rehabilitation centers to provide spiritual care.
It has been the most challenging, rewarding, meaningful work I have ever had the opportunity to do. It has changed my life.
At the beginning of this unit I asked, “What is CPE?” What is spiritual care? It seemed the more I asked, the more vague and mysterious the answers. Now that I attempt to answer that question, I am on the side of the mystery. Answers feel kaleidoscopic with only slivers of the answer available at a time.
My response did not want to come in the form of a paper or essay. Spiritual Care is not straightforward, and so no coherent, straightforward form would do. There are only flashes of insight. So instead, we have this deck.
Each day of spiritual care is a an exercise in trust and acceptance. We can hold only pieces at a time, never do it all alone, shuffle when needed, and hold everything lightly. “What is spiritual care?” Pick a card, any card.
