A Nurse's Hands

Blessed be these hands that have touched life.

Blessed be these hands that have felt pain.

Blessed be these hands that have embraced

with compassion.

Blessed be these hands that have been clenched

with anger or withdrawn in fear.

Blessed be these hands that have drawn blood

and administered medicine.

Blessed be these hands that have cleaned beds

and disposed of wastes.

Blessed be these hands that have anointed

the sick and offered blessings.

Blessed be these hands that grow stiff with age.

Blessed be these hands that have comforted

the dying and held the dead.

Blessed be these hands, we hold

the future in these hands.

Blessed be our hands for they are the work

of Your hands, O Holy One.

This Blessing of the Hands is from In Praise of Hands, Diann Neu, Waterwheel, Winter 1989. Adapted by Corlette Pierson,

Pastoral Care Resident at

Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center, Chicago, IL.

~RWS