Hands Held in Service, Community and Grace

Monday afternoon I visited a Pilgrim who lives in the nursing home here at Pilgrim Place.  Emily is a 90-year-old nurse who has spent many years working in South America. Emily is Baptist, but assured me as I was gratuitously introduced to her as a Catholic that “we all love the same God”

Emily told me about her neighbor, Laura, who had lived just across the hall from her. Laura was Catholic and told Emily that when she was growing up Catholics really weren't allowed to read the bible on their own. (Yes, we remember those days when fear of incorrect interpretation limited our exposure to Scripture to the readings at daily or weekly Mass.) . I did not ask, but I am led to believe that Laura had not lived at Pilgrim Place prior to her moving to their nursing home. The nursing home does not have the same residency requirements as the other areas of the campus.

Now, retired, with several chronic issues and needing the supportive services of a nursing home, Laura wanted to read the bible. She ordered a large print edition of both the NIV and the King James Version.  To her great distress, Laura could not read either volume because of her advanced macular degeneration. Not to be stopped, Laura asked Emily if she would read the Scriptures to her.  “She was so hungry for the Word,” Emily told me.  So regularly, Laura came to Emily’s room to hear Laura read the Scriptures to her.  At Laura’s request, each visit began with the two of them holding hands and praying the Lord’s Prayer together.

“We had read Matthew, Mark, Luke and almost all of John when Laura fell and had to be hospitalized.” The fall and Laura’s general health condition resulted in a rapid decline and she was soon placed in hospice care. “I went to visit Laura; I believe she was in a coma, and I did not know if she could hear me, though we believe hearing is one of the last senses we have.  I put my hand on her heart and recited the Lord’s Prayer. I hope she heard it.”

Ann Lamott says in her recent book, STITCHES, that at the heart of meaning is relationships.. What profound and sacred purpose and meaning both Emily and Laura found through this neighborly act of asking for assistance and in the act of providing it. Both are gifts. Both women were gifted in the exchange. 

GRACE

At around mid-meal in the large dining room of well over 150 diners, there was the gentle tinkling of a bell. In the silence that quickly followed a woman stepped to the microphone to lead Grace:

“According to the calendar of feasts at Lindisfarne, this is the feast of Michael the Archangel. And so today, instead of our usual model for prayer, I wonder if we might look at one another around our tables

“Reflect with gratitude for a moment on the way in which we are angels to one another. To each angel we say, ‘Thank you.’

“And then, let’s look at the staff nearest us, holding them with gratitude in our hearts for the many angelic tasks they perform for us. And together we say, ‘Thank you.’

“And to the God who gives us life and love, we say thank you.”

This was the scene in the dining room of Pilgrim Place a continuing care retirement community in Claremont, California with a unique history and spirit. In 1915 Pilgrim Place was established as a residence for foreign missionaries of the Congregational Church upon their return from China. Today residency at Pilgrim Place still requires of its residents that essential quality of having spent at least part of one’s life in ministry or ministries of service. The result is an amazing community with a breadth and depth of diversity of life experiences, yet holding in common a life of faith-based service.

It is so obvious from the first encounter with a Pilgrim (What a wonderful description of the persons who live here!) that life in this retirement community is filled with continuing service reflected, among other ways, in a deep sense of Christian community. Remember the hymn from the 60s, “They Will Know We Are Christians by Our Love”

Pilgrim Place brochures describe the campus as one where “Christian leaders” come “to continue their lifelong commitment to service and outreach while exploring new opportunities for personal growth and learning.” And in another place in the same brochure, “Pilgrim Place is an intentional community where persons come to live, grow, learn and extend their Christian commitment to service within the community and the world.”

At the noon meal I experienced the intentional community; in conversations I learned from the Pilgrims at my table about their involvement in issues that involve life here on the campus as well as issues that hold a global impact for justice.

There is much for me to mull over as I spend another day and a half here.  What applications are obvious for other retirement communities comprised of individuals who have spent their life in faith-based service?  Is there a different view of aging in this community, following from its commitment to intentional community, to a commitment to continue to grow and learn, and to extend service within the community and the world? Does such a vision result in a deeper experience of purpose and meaning in our later years?