Charles W. Sidoti

Charles W. Sidoti, BCC, is Coordinator of Spiritual Care at Cleveland Clinic South Pointe Hospital. He is the author of two books, "Living at God's Speed, Healing in God's Time," published in 2011 and "Simple Contemplative Spirituality," published in 2016.

Articles:

Food for the Journey

The phrase “food for the journey” is traditionally associated, in Catholicism, with reception of the Eucharist by the dying and their final journey from this life to eternal life through death. This concept can be traced back to the days of Roman temple worship to the belief that the final meal of a dying person provided them with strength to cross over the River Styx, an ancient mythological river that is believed to separate the living from the dead. With Jesus having left us the Eucharistic meal in his memory, the early Christians adapted a similar custom in regard to […]

Head and Heart: Like the Acorn and the Oak Tree

Grasping a concept or idea intellectually is one thing: having it become a real part of who you are is something different. I once heard it said, “Scripture contains the word of God in the way that the acorn contains the oak tree. It is all there, but its presence is made known to us little by little.” Living at God’s speed means accepting that my understanding of the way God works in my life will come to me in God’s time. Sometimes the proverbial light bulb goes on in our heads and we learn something instantly, but most of the time real learning […]

Waiting for God to Respond to a Prayer

There is a classic psychological question you may be familiar with that is related to our ability to wait on God: “If a tree falls in the forest and there is no one there to hear it, does it still make a sound?” When we pray the words of the Serenity Prayer, “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference,” we present God with three requests. 1) The first request is for the ability to accept the things that we cannot change. Here […]

Becoming Aware of God’s Presence

“We have what we seek. We don’t have to rush after it. It was there all the time. If we give it time it will make itself known to us.” – Thomas Merton As a young child I remember a picture hanging on the wall in my grandfather’s house. It showed Jesus standing outside a door and patiently knocking upon it. This picture is often accompanied by a caption taken from Sacred Scripture, “Behold I stand at the door and knock…” (Revelation 3:20). I realized at that time that the closed door represented the door to my life, the door to my heart. I knew […]

Finding God in Daily Life

God isn’t removed from us, sitting on some throne up in heaven somewhere. The “universal creative life energy” is found within the created world, within life’s natural cycles. From womb to tomb, our lives are fundamentally affected by the cycles and rhythm of life. The beat of our hearts and our breathing, without which nothing else would matter, are examples of our inseparable connection to life’s rhythm. The cycles at work in the world are easy to see. For instance, every day the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, marking the start and end of each new day, a […]

Doubt: A Meaningful Part of Saint Mother Teresa’s Story

One of the most important revelations about Saint Mother Teresa (1910 – 1997) was made after her death. It came in a collection of personal letters written to her spiritual advisers made public in a book published in 2007. The book called, Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light, revealed that Mother Teresa was plagued by serious doubts about her faith. The news headline read: “Letters Reveal Mother Teresa’s Secret: Book of Iconic Nun’s Letters Show She Was Tormented by Doubts in Her Faith.” The article stated in part, In a rare interview in 1986, Mother Teresa told CBS News she had a calling, […]

Learning to Accept Life’s Multiple Truths

One of my duties as a hospital chaplain is to plan and conduct memorial services at the hospital when an employee dies. This may happen several times a year. I usually try to arrange for someone to sing a reflective song as part of the service. There are several employees that sing in church choirs, and some who even sing professionally and are willing to share their talent at these special gatherings. I recall when Bernard, who runs the information desk in the main lobby, sang a song called “Life Is Hard But God Is Good.” The song was a […]

Saints and Ordinary People: We All Live by Faith

“The beauty of belief in the Communion of Saints is that it serves to remind us of our basic connectedness to one another as human beings, a spiritual connection that transcends death.” Life can be very lonely at times. It is also true, however, that we are never really alone. Something common to many religions is that they have certain men and women whose lives of faith stand out in such a way that they serve as examples for others. Some religions call them saints, while other religions do not, but most have their great men and women whose lives […]

Living in the In-Between Time

There is a classic psychological question you may be familiar with that is related to our ability to wait on God: ”If a tree falls in the forest and there is no one there to hear it, does it still make a sound?” When we pray the words of the Serenity Prayer, “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference,” we present God with three requests: 1) The first request is for the ability to accept the things that we cannot change. Here we […]

Trust Heals: Journeying With Faith, Hope and Patience

“With Open Hands” – Free me, Lord, from the inner bondage and endless cycle of what I think needs to happen before I can be happy. Free me, Lord, from my idea of the solution. Help me to wait with open ended, joyful expectation; and help me to experience your peace. Amen (Charles W. Sidoti). Ever wish you were more able to go with the flow? Have you ever wished you could go through the day without something upsetting your inner peace? It can be very helpful in this regard to think about how well you process the constant change that life provides. […]

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