paraclete
By Cathy Garrott:
Last week I received a letter from a dear friend in England telling me that her younger sister had just been diagnosed with PD. She said the whole family is somewhat in shock and struggling to grasp what this means for the future. Her letter was somewhat of a cry for me to help put some normality back into their lives, to offer some hope that everything is going to be alright and they can get back to life as they have known it before now. Unfortunately I do not have the power to do that, only God can do that kind of thing. But I can be used by Him as one who can come along side to exhort, encourage, urge, and comfort … a kind of paraclete with skin on.
I spent several hours pouring my heart out to her in an 8 page letter. I did not want to say “Welcome aboard the PD train of life” because I don’t think anyone would find a “welcome” comforting at this time in their life. In fact, I have yet to meet someone with PD who thought of this as a welcome diagnosis when they received it. I shared with my friend the myriad of feelings and emotions that bombarded my heart and mind when I was first diagnosed … denial, anxiety, grief, anger, pity, and more. I told her that I struggle with it mentally, emotionally, and physically every day. Laying my heart open for her to see what her sister is probably going through mentally, I tried to be as honest and open with her as I felt she could handle at this point. Her sister’s caregivers are going to need to understand what is going on in HER mind and help her deal with things as SHE is perceiving them. They are going to need to be a paraclete for this sister, offering hope in times of despair.
Listing several websites that will be of help, I encouraged her to share my letter with her sister and the rest of the entire family … so that they will be good caregivers from the get-go. We need to be surrounded by people who offer us understanding and hope … whether we have PD or not! We need people around us who will encourage us to do all that we are able, and help us see how much that is.
According to Webster, Paraclete is a Latin word that was used by the early church to mean “HOLY SPIRIT.” (The reference for this word is found in John 14:16, 26; 15:26; 16:7.) It was taken from the Greek noun parakletos” – which means literally “advocate, intercessor” and from the Greek verb parakalein which means “to invoke.” These 2 Greek words come from the word stem parakaleo which means “I exhort, I encourage, I urge, I comfort.”