During Pastoral Care Week, Mater People have been encouraged to pause for just a moment during their busy lives to reconnect to their true selves, their spirituality and the people around them.

South Brisbane Mater People were invited to celebrate this year’s theme, Hospitality: cultivating space, by visiting a meditation and prayer space on Aubigny Lawn.

A feature was a large meditation labyrinth (maze) for staff, patients and visitors to walk through and enjoy.

Pastoral Care Practitioner Samuel Dow said the labyrinth was an opportunity to take five minutes out of the day for reflection.

“Clearing our minds for just five minutes a day – just thinking of nothing is something that rarely happens these days but is so important,” Samuel said.

“We’re always connected to technology, our work and balancing family that we forget to care for ourselves.

“The labyrinth is an interesting walk as it takes you in directions you least expect which could be described as a metaphor for life,” he said.

The labyrinth is an ancient meditation tool which finds its origins in the earliest of Christian practices, with a fourth century example located in the Basilica of St Reparatus at Orleansville, Algeria and more famously Chartres Cathedral in France. 

The canvas labyrinth, on loan to Mater for Pastoral Care Week, is based on the medieval design from Chartres and provides a way of stilling the mind for intentional prayer or mindfulness. People from all faiths and those who don’t identify with a faith have found the meditation labyrinth a powerful resource for helping to restore spiritual wellbeing.

The Pastoral Care team acknowledges the hard work of all employees and wishes Mater People moments of peace and stillness this week.

Mater’s Pastoral Care team work across South Brisbane, Redland and Springfield campuses. They focus on the whole person—the physical, emotional, social and spiritual wellbeing. Pastoral Care is a priority at Mater and the dedicated team supports all clinicians to provide holistic care to patients, their carers and family members.

Pastoral carers seek to visit patients while they are staying at one of Mater’s hospitals and the needs of all denominations and faiths are embraced.