”May it be done to me according to your word.” Luke 1: 26-38
I recall a story published in America of Kristen Weston, an obstetrics nurse at Pine Ridge Hospital in South Dakota. She loved nursing and sees her work among her own Lakota people as a vocation. Kristen wrote about the night she realised her work was a call from God.
On one particular night there would not be a happy ending. Kristen was assigned to care for a family who would not be welcoming a new life into the world. The expectant mother would be delivering a stillborn baby. This was the first time Kristen would be taking care of patient like this. Nothing in nursing school had prepared her for such a situation. She thought about turning down the assignment — but, thankfully, she didn’t.
Before entering the room, the young nurse prayed: God, I know you guided me here to do your work, but I don’t know what to do. I know you have put me here for a reason, but please be with me while I do my best to take care of this family.
Kristen remembers:
“I then took a deep breath, walked into the room, and at that moment felt I had God at my side. The feeling in the room was thick with sorrowful emotions, and I was still unsure of how to begin our interaction. As soon as I opened my mouth, I felt God take over and lead me to find just the right words: My name is Kristin, and I’ll be with you tonight. That was it. With the few words I was guided toward, I felt peace in my heart.
“I would not say I knew exactly what to do in the delivery room at that moment, but I felt that I was not alone in the care I was giving the mother . . . I have found that, in my work, I am never alone. I have God with me, even when I feel like I have no clue of what to do. I do not have to be afraid of going through trying situations with patients by myself.”
Every life is a series of “annunciations”: when God’s messenger “appears” in some form asking us to use our skills and resources for another’s well-being, when we realize that God is calling us to “bring to birth” his compassion and justice through in some course of action in a difficult situation.
The Solemnity of the Annunciation – nine months before Christmas – is the perfect Marian feast for Lent, these 40 days when our hearts and spirits are especially opened to the presence of Gabriel “announcing” to us that the Lord is with us, that we have nothing to fear, that we have been called by God to bring his Christ into this time and place of ours.
Gracious God, may we have the faith and trust of your daughter Mary to say “yes” to your calling us to make your presence known in our time and place. Open our hearts to receive the gift of your Son; open our spirits that we may realise our “annunciation moment” to our waiting world.
Fr John Frauenfelder
