Remember me when I Call
Christian Caregiver Song
Enjoy singing or speaking this song originally written as a prayer,
now a song composed and rewritten by Mary Davis.
Jesus My Heart’s Desire
Jesus, Beloved One of my heart,
Yours are the healing hands I long for.
You are the blessing within my soul,
The deepest center of my being.
CHORUS
So I offer my life to Your hands of healing;
As through darkness You walked,
As through darkness You died in,
Grant me to pass through this darkness with grace
As I die to myself to find life in You.
(As I die to this life to find life in You.)
Lift me into Your risen light,
Light of pure love, that has no shadow.
No shadow cast by Your turning away;
You’re ever with me, creating me new.
Copyright 2019, Joan Englander, Mary Gross Davis
Christian Prayer
Jesus, Awe of sacrificial love
Love willing to give up everything
To bring hope to a broken world
to our broken selves
broken for everyone; for me, you
all great beings that lived
before and after him.
As you did not resist your death
may I not resist mine
even as I may sorrow over leaving this life.
Whatever anguish I experience
may it be a sacred expression of
remembrance:
this small agony of mine offered up
for those who suffer so much more
may their trials be lessened.
May I never lose sight of holiness
contained within agony for
suffering brings alive your life story
yours and in some small way
mine.
Your story as it moves from agony
into transcendence
light given into a brighter light
than ever before
a healing for the world of tomorrow.
Standing at the foot of your Cross
I forgive. This is my prayer:
Remember me when I call.
Caregivers remind me:
“When you pass through the waters, they shall not overflow you, and
through the rivers, they shall not overcome you. When you pass
through the fire, you shall not be burned, neither shall the fire kindle
against you. For I am the Lord your God and I call you by your name.
You are mine.” (ISA 43:2)
“I am my Beloved’s and my Beloved is mine.”
L’cha dodi. (Song of Songs 6:3)
All Will Be Well [1]
Author’s Message
In the small book, All Will Be Well, 14th century mystic, Julian of Norwich, gives us a glimpse of Jesus as our Mother. Jesus who gives beyond what our human mother gives when she suckles us at her breast; Jesus who gives himself to us, giving all that he is.
What does this mean? Julian in her visions, sees Jesus as loving me and you so much that he would do his death all over again out of his great love for us. He gave all for me, for you. His love wants everything good for us. He sees us as marvelous creatures he himself gave birth to. We are wonderful, no matter how many shortcomings we have. We are his delight.
Jesus, our true mother. For he gives us nourishment, food, drink, sustenance so that we can be alive and well. The life that he pours into us, gifts us with his wisdom, his mercy, his healing, compassion, fearlessness, endlessness. Yes, he gives us life without end, and who would do that but the Mother of all powerful Love?
Devotional Caregiving: The Way of Jesus
Joan Englander© 2017
Inspired by Julian of Norwich
O Divine Mother Jesus, how gentle is your touch, how fierce your passion, your fire to see us poured out in love into the world. As your hands, your words, your flower. We lie in your arms and bask in your joy for having made us your very own.
You are the love in our breath, for you sustain us. Through us you sing your lullaby, your mothering song. You are our comforter, our hope, our eternity, our risen one and the power of the one who raised you from among the dead dwells in us.
When we go out to another who suffers, we go out as the mother you made us to be. You have given us tender mercy in our hearts. We know how to be and what to do when the one we touch suffers. We know, because you know. We reach out, because you reach out. We are grateful because you are grateful.
You have given us a task. To be your mercy in the world. Mother of compassion, be our smile, our tenderness, our endlessness, our confidence that you made us as beauty shining into the hearts of others. As awe in being part of your divine nature, we are an extension of the mother love that only you can give fully, without barriers, judgments or partiality.
You as mother speak in the world through Jesus, through Mary, through the saints the world over, in many languages, in many forms. You live continually in the selfless ones who care for the lost, the broken hearted, the maimed, the discarded, the lonely. You say: here I am dear child to comfort you. Do not be afraid, I am your mother. I hold you tenderly and remind you that you are made beautiful in my sight. No blemish can mar this beauty, for you are not just this suffering body, but a bright and illumined soul.
Do not succumb to your anguish. Rise up like a star, and watch your suffering transform into sparks of dancing light. You are more than suffering flesh, you are the playful child I made you to be, the one who dances in spirit and loves through song. I made you to be an inner resonance, an inner radiance, a spark that cannot go out. Come to me dear child, and know love streaming toward you. Allow this love to also stream out from you, in complete certainty that you are love, you were made for love, and you are deathless in love.
So much are you loved, that the anguish of Jesus would again be suffered by him if only to free you for knowing you are not maimed, sick, deformed, abandoned, ugly or despised. You are created for love and until your very release from this earthen body, you have never lost, and can never lose, the precious beauty that you are. It doesn’t matter whether you can walk, speak, sing, move or utter a sound. For this precious being that you are shines through the darkness and makes all things new.
Prayer
Julian of Norwich
Courteous God,
Be the foundation of my being.
May I sit in you in true rest,
Stand in you in sure strength,
And be rooted in you in endless love.
Reveal yourself more to me
So that I may know my true nature better
And act as I truly am.
Hildegard of Bingen 1098-1179 [2]
Christian mystic, artist, composer, healer
O Wise woman, O lovely and
loving Mother,
you are the ground of all being.
We greet you as children.
O wise woman, O luminous Mother,
we want you to plead for us,
for our lives, for our radiance
to ask for that same sweet shining
that you have.
The seed that sprouted from your womb
bore delicious fruit that feeds us.
We are the guests at this feast of joy.
O Mother Wisdom,
so greatly does God delight in you,
so enthralled is God with you,
that he has sunk deep within you
the fire of true love, and your body,
complete with ecstasy, resounds
with the full symphony of heaven.
Alleluia! Light
Burst from your untouched
Womb like a flower
on the farther side
Of death. The world tree
Is blossoming. Two
Realms become one.
[1]All Will Be Well, 30 Days with a Great Spiritual Teacher, Julian of Norwich, pp 136, Notre Dame, Indiana, Ave Maria Press, 2003
[2]“excerpt from Hildegard of Bingen,” (c) 2007 Mirabai Starr used with permission from the author and the publisher, Sounds True, Inc.-eBook available for purchase at www.soundstrue.com"