Caring Touch for Homeless and Marginalized Persons

Today we feature a video from the Daughters of Charity archives about “Seeing Christ in the Poor” through the ministry of massage therapy for homeless persons. I decided to search the Internet for other examples of this ministry. There is a very interesting site called carethroughtouch.org. In this article (pdf file), Mary Ann Finch, the founder of Care Through Touch, shares that the therapist’s willingness to enter into a real relationship with the homeless person is critical. “This is a ministry; it’s not a business. You need to come from a place of compassion, which is not about pity. You need to believe, ‘I’m coming here to give what I have to give you and receive what you have to give me. We’re both healers, and who is to say who is the healer at this moment?’ The playing ground has to be even.”

What could be more Vincentian than that?

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