Readings

August 12: Florence Nightingale, Nurse, 1910

The Collect of the Day

Florence Nightingale

O God, who gave grace to your servant Florence Nightingale to bear your healing love into the shadow of death: Grant to all who heal the same virtues of patience, mercy, and steadfast love, that your saving health may be revealed to all; through Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Florence Nightingale

O God, who didst give grace to thy servant Florence Nightingale to bear thy healing love into the shadow of death: Grant unto all who healthe same virtues of patience, mercy, and steadfast love, that thy saving health may be revealed to all; through Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Florence Nightingale was born to a wealthy English family in Florence, Italy, on May 12th, 1820. She trained as a nurse in a hospital run by a Lutheran order of Deaconesses at Kaiserwerth, and in 1853 became superintendent of a hospital for invalid women in London. In response to God’s call and animated by a spirit of service, in 1854 she volunteered for duty during the Crimean War and recruited 38 nurses to join her. With them she organized the first modern nursing service in the British field hospitals of Scutari and Balaclava.

Making late-night rounds to check on the welfare of her charges, a hand-held lantern to aid her, the wounded identified her as “The Lady with the Lamp.” By imposing strict discipline and high standards of sanitation she radically reduced the drastic death toll and rampant infection then typical in field hospitals. She returned to England in 1856, and a fund of £50,000 was subscribed to enable her to form an institution for the training of nurses at St. Thomas’s Hospital and at King’s College Hospital. Her school at St. Thomas’s Hospital became significant in helping to elevate nursing into a profession. She devoted many years to the question of army sanitary reform, to the improvement of nursing, and to public health in India. Her main work, Notes on Nursing, went through many editions.

An Anglican, she remained committed to a personal mystical religion, which sustained her through many years of poor health until her death in 1910. Until the end of her life, although her illness prevented her from leaving her home, she continued in frequent spiritual conversation with many prominent church leaders ofthe day, including the local parish priest, who regularly brought the Eucharist to her. By the time of her death on August 13th, 1910, her accomplishments and legacy were widely recognized, and sheis honored throughout the world as the founder of the modern profession of nursing.

Lessons and Psalm

First Lesson

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Psalm

23Yet I am always with you; *you hold me by my right hand.

24You will guide me by your counsel, *and afterwards receive me with glory.

25Whom have I in heaven but you? *and having you I desire nothing upon earth.

26Though my flesh and my heart should waste away, *God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever.

27Truly, those who forsake you will perish; *you destroy all who are unfaithful.

28But it is good for me to be near God; *I have made the Lord God my refuge.

29I will speak of all your works *in the gates of the city of Zion.

Gospel

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Jeremiah 30:12–17

12 For thus says the Lord: Your hurt is incurable, your wound is grievous. 13 There is no one to uphold your cause, no medicine for your wound, no healing for you. 14 All your lovers have forgotten you; they care nothing for you; for I have dealt you the blow of an enemy, the punishment of a merciless foe, because your guilt is great, because your sins are so numerous. 15 Why do you cry out over your hurt? Your pain is incurable. Because your guilt is great, because your sins are so numerous, I have done these things to you. 16 Therefore all who devour you shall be devoured, and all your foes, everyone of them, shall go into captivity; those who plunder you shall be plundered, and all who prey on you I will make a prey. 17 For I will restore health to you, and your wounds I will heal, says the Lord, because they have called you an outcast: “It is Zion; no one cares for her!”

Luke 10:29–37

29 But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30 Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.’ 36 Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” 37 He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”