… burnout … compassion fatigue … brokenness … emotional fatigue … stress … anxiety …
The paradox is that it is only through our woundedness that we are able to heal others.
Frank Ostaseski discusses here. (scroll down a little to “Too of ten in care-giving …”)
Rachel Remen discusses in a previous post.
Leonce de Grandmaison’s “Prayer for the Heart of a Child” begs for a “wound that will not heal until heaven.”
Prayer for the Heart of a Child
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
preserve in me the heart of a child,
pure and clean like spring water;
a simple heart
that does not remain absorbed
in its own sadness;
a loving heart
that freely gives with compassion;
a faithful and generous heart
that neither forgets good
nor feels bitterness for any evil.
Give me a sweet and humble heart
that loves without asking
to be loved in return,
happy to lose itself
in the heart of others,
sacrificing itself in front
of your Divine Son;
a great and unconquerable heart
which no ingratitude can close
and no indifference can tire;
a heart tormented by the glory of Christ,
pierced by His love
with a wound that will not heal
until heaven.
– Fr. Leonce de Grandmaison