The Humanity through Grace Home & Guesthouse has emerged out of the story of our journey in the Pursuit of Happiness along a Road Less Travelled of the healing and development of our Humanity through Grace. The psychological, spiritual, and intellectual foundations upon which our path has been built have proved good for the health and wellbeing of our whole-person by dispelling at their roots the darkness of unhealthy ways and relationships.
We want to share and apply the benefits of this care for ourselves with others through a ministry of hospitality in collaberation with Health and Social Care Services. This aims to meet the desperate need of the many hapless victims of our society marked by broken families and relationships, which often has a toxic life-long effect upon health and wellbeing impacting society for generations.
Our approach to care represents an alternative to the popular path along which many people unwittingly find themselves following today, and with no memory of the ancient paths mapped out in the Bible.
Despite the undoubted benefits of modern science and technology, todays pilgrims could be described as the Feral Children of the Prodigal Son who didn't return home to the Father. Increasingly hidden from view, this deep inner psychological and spiritual root cause of unhealthy ways and relationship is having a toxic effect upon health and wellbeing.
Our approach to care draws from tried and tested timeless spiritual and psychological truths drawn from the Christian contemplative tradition. From cradle to grave, in good times and bad, these continue to shed much needed Light in the darkness many find themselves living in today.
The example of the Ministry of Hospitality of St Benedict is central, and like our work emerged out of the threatened collapse of a political and morally failling society and culture. The first half of St Benedict’s life was a time of relative prosperity, peace, and good government. However, all that came to a sudden end - the last fifteen years of his life were a time of plague, natural disasters, war, destruction, and hardship that devastated peoples health and wellbeing. Beginning in the year 536AD, was a year described by historians as the worst ever to be alive.
Our ministry of hospitality also find a model and example in Elizabethan times in the homes of recusant families like the Southworth's at Samlesbury Hall in Lancashire, and in priests like St Edmund Arrowsmith who ministered to them through whose intercession people still find healing today.
Through priests like St Edmund, Jesus' therapeutic Presence made concrete in the Eucharist, was established as the cornerstone of the homes of these families and their friends and local community.
For the journey in Pursuit of Happiness, Health & Wellbeing.
Jesus' Humanity through Grace is at the heart of the hospitality of our HtG Home & Guesthouse. It is an expression of belief in his resurrection from the dead revealing himself to be "the Way, the Truth, and the Life" whom we can come to know, love, and serve.
The therapeutic presence of the Divine Phycisian, His Humanity through Grace, creates an environment and culture that delivers truly whole-person-centred care producing the best outcomes in recovery, health, and wellbeing.
Addressing the question, 'what about spiritual needs?', is central to our whole-person-centred approach to care for oneself and others which is supported by a growing body of research in Health and Social Care.
Research from Duke University supports the benefits to health and wellbeing of taking peoples 'spiritual needs' seriously and their application in Health & Social Care.
This positive link, along with an understanding of the deep spiritual source and origin of all sickness and disease is supported in my article in The Way Journal found in the link below.
The Way journal. (Jan 2021, Vol 60 No1)
A Story of Our Time: A Psycho-Spiritual Interpretation of the Prodigal Son.
We find ourselves in darkness, yet we live in the Light; we know sorrow, yet we have joy; we are burdened,
yet we have wings to meet our God, the eternal Light and Life of all creation.
This is our joy now, and in this joy we shall remain.
We must fight to dispel the darkness of unhealthy ways and relationships
through the healing and development of our Humanity through Grace.
We must hold the standard high; we must let the Light of Christ shine forth.
We must never be discouraged. Amen.
Our Lady of the Wayside,
we are weak, and we will falter.
When the rugged paths are winding
out before us, mile on mile;
Let thy lights be always gleaming,
As through all the darksome ages
For the pilgrim they have glowed;
Till they lead us o’er the desert
To the haven of our dreaming,
To thy home, with your Son,
At the ending of the road. Amen.