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Article

What Is Faith
for Those Who Forget?

By Elizabeth Spencer

As a caring, compassionate community we are often painfully aware of what we cannot do and do not know. Our efforts in ministering to and with families and patients struggling with Alzheimer's disease challenge us and many of our assumptions about ministry, faith and spirituality.

The heart-wrenching reality for patients and their families is one of fear-for the safety and well-being of our loved ones, of the uncontrollable and the unknown, of the financial impact and the family issues and responsibilities. These fears are compounded by a legion of excruciating losses-the loss of independence, privacy, dignity, identity and self.

In his book Can You Drink the Cup? (Notre Dame, Ind.: Ave Maria Press, 1996), Henri Nouwen makes spirituality and ministry into something tangible by using the eucharistic metaphors of holding, lifting and drinking the Communion cup.

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