Holy Week Devotion

Sunday, April 10
Mark 14:12-26

When we are broken…

by Denise Walling

“While they were eating, he took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to them, and said, ‘Take; this is my body’” –Mark 14:22

Driving home from my job at the hospital where I work as a chaplain, I just felt so broken.

My office, the department of pastoral care, had to be retooled for a completely different mission.

Our previous mission was to provide pastoral care to patients and their families who were facing difficult situations. Then COVID-19 came. No more visitors. No more pastoral care to family members, either. Our mission in pastoral care had changed to caring for the staff who were literally risking their lives. There was a code blue (cardiac arrest) at 2:45 a.m. for a 45-year-old COVID patient. There were no family members present. All I could do was pray. I prayed for that young man and for those brave people trying to save him. I felt so unequipped and so broken.

When Jesus broke the bread and gave it to the disciples, he did more than give them nourishment. He gave them hope and he gave them joy. In Jesus’ example of his own brokenness, he shows us that when we are broken, we are most like him.

Denise Walling is in the Order of Deaconess and Home Missioner, Ellis Hospital, Schenectady,N.Y., and Jonesville/Shenendehowa United Methodist Churches, Clifton, N.Y.

First published: 2022 Daily Prayer Guide