Healers' hands blessed by many faiths

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Few of the St. Mark's Hospital employees who reached out their hands for a blessing from Imam Shuaib-Ud Din understood the words he spoke in Arabic.

But that didn't much matter.

It was a gift to be received, one of many Wednesday during the eighth annual Blessing of the Hands at St. Mark's.

An estimated 100 of the hospital's 1,600 employees spent time on the lawn at the rear of the hospital, washing their hands in blessed water and having their hands, palms upturned, blessed by Din of the Utah Islamic Center, representatives of the Buddhist, Episcopal and LDS faiths, a nondenominational chaplain and an Arapaho healer.

"I hit every one of them," said Sandy Osmond, director of Women's Services. "I get a sense of peace and well-being."

Her friend Sharon Hartwell was new to the Blessing of the Hands event.

"I'm LDS, but spirituality is everywhere," said Hartwell, director of obstetrics and gynecology. "Now I can go back to work and feel the same kind of spiritual feeling that's out here."

Din began his blessing with a passage from the Quran and then blew on each person's hands, signifying the transfer of the words -- God's words -- to the hands of the healer.

Islam, he said, considers medicine a blessed profession.

"We are all his instruments," said Din. "We can't cure anyone and neither can medicine cure anyone."

Jody Davis, a hospice chaplain who is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, asked each employee who sought his blessing about their work, and then tailored his blessing.

"It's good to know who they are," said Davis. "Each is different."

Diana Kassavetis, a hospital volunteer who uses a cane and is in need of back surgery, said she felt much better after the blessings, the last of which left her and the Arapaho healer, Dorian Two Horses Sanchez, hugging and in tears.

Sanchez, standing with Kassavetis on a bear rug, used an eagle feather and the smoke of burning sage, sweet grass, bearroot, red willow and cedar as he blessed her from head to toe.

"Grandfather, I ask you to help this person with aches and pains," he prayed.

The Rev. Claudia Giacoma, who works at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Park City as well as at St. Mark's, said the blessing ceremony each year reminds the health-care workers that what they do matters.

"They have an identity larger than their jobs," she said. "They are ministers who bring God to everyone they meet."

Lynette Risk, a nurse who works in quality control, beamed as Giacoma held her hands and told her, "Know that God sees you and your ministry. Your calling is every bit as important as any calling."

Risk said she never misses the annual blessing.

"Every year, it's just sort of a spiritual boost."