That's what I'm getting at. It's impossible to compare, measure or quantify one spirituality with another. Church nurtures faith that makes redemptive suffering possible. Choosing the right words on this topic is hard.
HOW TO SUFFER
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Asking a friend to help you change a flat tire is not much different from asking a saint to take prayer requests to God. "prayers to so-and-so" is short hand for just that. Saints in heaven don't answer prayers. That's God's job. "Prayers to" saints never stop at the saint. They are not worshiped any more than you would worship the friend helping you change a flat tire.
This is a very BRIEF and awkward analogy of the Communion of Saints. Before attempting to digest this post, I would ask that you suspend any prejudice that you may have. Let me introduce to you a very close friend of mine who saw me through the darkest hours of my life.
This is a very BRIEF and awkward analogy of the Communion of Saints. Before attempting to digest this post, I would ask that you suspend any prejudice that you may have. Let me introduce to you a very close friend of mine who saw me through the darkest hours of my life.
In 7th century Ireland, incest was acceptable among the remaining pagans. (eeewwww!) This nifty cartoon meme explains the story of St. Dymphna in condensed form. (pronounced demp-na)
https://www.catholic.org/saints/fun_facts_arch.php?saint=222
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A striking photo I call "Simonette of Cyrene" (parallels Mark 15:21)
it's watermarked with a copy write.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...=a.90044513874.81692.500663874&type=3&theater
it's watermarked with a copy write.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...=a.90044513874.81692.500663874&type=3&theater
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It's a facebook page. It could have strong privacy settings. try another linkPictures still not showing up!
Someone must have changed the software. An "update" I guess.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...=a.90044513874.81692.500663874&type=3&theater
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Helen
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Oh yes...I saw that one yesterday while on there.
The little girl trying to help the statue of Jesus Carry the cross.
Lovely picture. and well caught by the photographer.
( 'cept we know that in reality the prisoners destine for execution only carried the cross beams...the tall stakes always stayed in the ground permanently. )
The little girl trying to help the statue of Jesus Carry the cross.
Lovely picture. and well caught by the photographer.
( 'cept we know that in reality the prisoners destine for execution only carried the cross beams...the tall stakes always stayed in the ground permanently. )
THE REAL GEEL
At the center of Geel, a charming Belgian town less than an hour's drive from of Antwerp, is a church dedicated to Dymphna, a saint believed to have the power to cure mental disorders( that she can only get from God) It's a medieval church with stone arches, spires and a half-built bell tower, and it has inspired an unusual centuries-old practice: For over 700 years, residents of Geel have been accepting people with mental disorders, often very severe mental disorders, into their homes and caring for them.
It isn't meant to be a treatment or therapy. The people are not called patients, but guests or boarders. They go to Geel and join households to share a life with people who can watch over them. Today, there are about 250 boarders in Geel. One of them is a Flemish man named Luc Ennekans. He's slim and has green eyes, and he's 51 years old. NPR's Lulu Miller went to Geel and met him and his host family there and reported this story for Invisibilia.
Like all of the guests in the town today, Ennekans first went to a public psychiatric hospital in Geel that manages the boarder program. Ennekans saw medical professionals and received treatment and an evaluation. Then he was paired with a household. His hosts, Toni Smit and Arthur Shouten, say that living with Ennekans was rough at the start.
studies have found that the incidence of violence by boarders is low; people who have previously exhibited violent behavior are usually not admitted to the program.
The integration of people with mental disorders into Geel society has fascinated scholars for centuries. In 1862, Dr. Louiseau, a visiting French doctor, described it as "the extraordinary phenomenon presented at Geel of 400 insane persons moving freely about in the midst of a population which tolerates them without fear and without emotion." Nearly 100 years after that, an American psychiatrist named Charles D. Aring wrote in the journal JAMA,"The remarkable aspect of the Gheel experience, for the uninitiated[,] is the attitude of the citizenry."
Early psychiatrists who observed Geel noticed that the treatment prescribed for mental patients was, in fact, no treatment at all. "To them, treating the insane, meant to simply live with them, share their work, their distractions," Jacques-Joseph Moreau wrote in 1845. He and others advocated for that communion. "In a colony, like in Geel, the crazy people ... have not completely lost their dignity as reasonable human beings." In the next half-century, many would uphold Geel's model as the best standard of practice for mental disorders.
How Geel came to be this way begins with the town's devotion to St. Dymphna, whose church stands in the center of town. According to legend, Dymphna was a 7th-century Irish princess who fled to Geel from a maddened father and devoted her life to serving the mentally disabled. But she became a martyr when her father discovered her location and traveled to Geel to behead her.
The town built St. Dymphna's church in the 14th century to honor the saint and enshrine her supposed remains. It became a popular pilgrimage site for people across Europe, who would bring loved ones to the shrine in the hopes of finding relief from their mental distress.
The early practice was often mutually beneficial for both the hosts and the boarders, Jay says. Many Geel residents were farmers, and boarders offered a source of labor. In exchange, the boarders got stable housing and a family life....
...By the turn of the 20th century, the International Congress of Psychiatry had declared Geel an example of best practice to be copied elsewhere. The program continued to be a source of local pride, and it grew. At the program's peak in 1930, about 4,000 boarders resided in Geel — a quarter of the town's population.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health...wn-has-embraced-strangers-with-mental-illness
At the center of Geel, a charming Belgian town less than an hour's drive from of Antwerp, is a church dedicated to Dymphna, a saint believed to have the power to cure mental disorders( that she can only get from God) It's a medieval church with stone arches, spires and a half-built bell tower, and it has inspired an unusual centuries-old practice: For over 700 years, residents of Geel have been accepting people with mental disorders, often very severe mental disorders, into their homes and caring for them.
It isn't meant to be a treatment or therapy. The people are not called patients, but guests or boarders. They go to Geel and join households to share a life with people who can watch over them. Today, there are about 250 boarders in Geel. One of them is a Flemish man named Luc Ennekans. He's slim and has green eyes, and he's 51 years old. NPR's Lulu Miller went to Geel and met him and his host family there and reported this story for Invisibilia.
Like all of the guests in the town today, Ennekans first went to a public psychiatric hospital in Geel that manages the boarder program. Ennekans saw medical professionals and received treatment and an evaluation. Then he was paired with a household. His hosts, Toni Smit and Arthur Shouten, say that living with Ennekans was rough at the start.
studies have found that the incidence of violence by boarders is low; people who have previously exhibited violent behavior are usually not admitted to the program.
The integration of people with mental disorders into Geel society has fascinated scholars for centuries. In 1862, Dr. Louiseau, a visiting French doctor, described it as "the extraordinary phenomenon presented at Geel of 400 insane persons moving freely about in the midst of a population which tolerates them without fear and without emotion." Nearly 100 years after that, an American psychiatrist named Charles D. Aring wrote in the journal JAMA,"The remarkable aspect of the Gheel experience, for the uninitiated[,] is the attitude of the citizenry."
Early psychiatrists who observed Geel noticed that the treatment prescribed for mental patients was, in fact, no treatment at all. "To them, treating the insane, meant to simply live with them, share their work, their distractions," Jacques-Joseph Moreau wrote in 1845. He and others advocated for that communion. "In a colony, like in Geel, the crazy people ... have not completely lost their dignity as reasonable human beings." In the next half-century, many would uphold Geel's model as the best standard of practice for mental disorders.
How Geel came to be this way begins with the town's devotion to St. Dymphna, whose church stands in the center of town. According to legend, Dymphna was a 7th-century Irish princess who fled to Geel from a maddened father and devoted her life to serving the mentally disabled. But she became a martyr when her father discovered her location and traveled to Geel to behead her.
The town built St. Dymphna's church in the 14th century to honor the saint and enshrine her supposed remains. It became a popular pilgrimage site for people across Europe, who would bring loved ones to the shrine in the hopes of finding relief from their mental distress.
The early practice was often mutually beneficial for both the hosts and the boarders, Jay says. Many Geel residents were farmers, and boarders offered a source of labor. In exchange, the boarders got stable housing and a family life....
...By the turn of the 20th century, the International Congress of Psychiatry had declared Geel an example of best practice to be copied elsewhere. The program continued to be a source of local pride, and it grew. At the program's peak in 1930, about 4,000 boarders resided in Geel — a quarter of the town's population.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health...wn-has-embraced-strangers-with-mental-illness
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