Medicine and Religion Together Can Improve Geriatric Care
Mauro Ferrari, Ph.D., President and CEO, Houston Methodist Research Institute
Prayer and research share many fundamental characters. Creativity and mysticism are born of the same cloth, and at times even merge with rigor and communication, as in the life and works of Bonaventura da Bagnoregio. Faith, Hope, and Love inspire our work in medicine. They are joined, perhaps surprisingly, by Sorrow in the Universal Prayer of Pope Clement XI – and constantly in our lives as providers of health care to current and future patients. Simon was from Cyrene, he was not even a local resident, but ended up on the Via Dolorosa, perhaps attracted by the crowd. There he was asked to help our Lord Christ Jesus to carry the Cross– and through Him the crosses of all that were made in His image. The request came from one of His tormentors, perhaps the most unlikely of sources, for an inspiration to serve the Lord by helping others. Yet he did help Him, and who are we not to do the same, regardless of the wheres, the whys, the hows, and the original plans for our metaphorical day?
My testimonial of a journey in Faith and science is an humble expression of gratitude and awe to Bonaventura, Clement and Simon, and expressed in five prayers from their words – and our nanomedicine laboratories.
Prayer and research share many fundamental characters. Creativity and mysticism are born of the same cloth, and at times even merge with rigor and communication, as in the life and works of Bonaventura da Bagnoregio. Faith, Hope, and Love inspire our work in medicine. They are joined, perhaps surprisingly, by Sorrow in the Universal Prayer of Pope Clement XI – and constantly in our lives as providers of health care to current and future patients. Simon was from Cyrene, he was not even a local resident, but ended up on the Via Dolorosa, perhaps attracted by the crowd. There he was asked to help our Lord Christ Jesus to carry the Cross– and through Him the crosses of all that were made in His image. The request came from one of His tormentors, perhaps the most unlikely of sources, for an inspiration to serve the Lord by helping others. Yet he did help Him, and who are we not to do the same, regardless of the wheres, the whys, the hows, and the original plans for our metaphorical day?
My testimonial of a journey in Faith and science is an humble expression of gratitude and awe to Bonaventura, Clement and Simon, and expressed in five prayers from their words – and our nanomedicine laboratories.