Fall 2012 Issue [PDF] - Episcopal Divinity School

models and mirrors in callingModels and Mirrors in CallingTHE REV. LISA R. FORTUNA, MDPHOTO BY KEN KOTCHWhen I was four years old, I declared that I wantedto be a doctor. I had no real idea what a doctordid, but there was something about who mygrandmother was that touched the place inside me that isabout who I am and what I am called to do.Despite having only a third-grade education, my grandmotherwas the inspiration for my desire to become a healer.She is a caring woman who is knowledgeable about medicinalherbs, and she is a constant source of wisdom and caring.She taught me the most important lessons and values ofhealing, which I still bring to my medical practice and myministry: be faithful to God, be humble, love people, takegood care of them, and listen with your heart. When I wasyounger, I really did not know what all that meant, but I knewthat it “spoke” to me and awakened what was within me waitingto mature and to reach fruition.When I attended college in 1987, I discovered that, in additionto studying molecules and cells, it was natural for meto integrate my interests in contemporary issues, culture,and spirituality. I continued on to medical school, and latercompleted a master’s degree in public health. Because of theculture of medical training and the health-care field in thiscountry, I found myself consciously struggling to retain mygrandmother’s values of humility, faith, and love.The process of becoming a physician can be surprisinglychallenging to your spirit. You can easily become lost in thescience and the procedures, and there is the risk of forgettingto witness the amazing human beings whose lives you havethe privilege to know.I was struck by this the first time when I was unable toresuscitate an 11-year-old child who had been struggling withthe complications of AIDS and had stopped breathing duringa fatal bout of pneumonia. I was the physician leadingthe resuscitation team when she stopped breathing. Whenthe child died, I sat with her grandmother to console her andshe began to tell me beautiful stories about that child’s life. Iknew I was in a place of sacred privilege, and it was humbling.I was not sure who was consoling whom, but reflecting back,I now know we were holding each other.This type of experience brought me back to that calling tobe a healer, but also reminded me to be present in the sacredas part of that calling. I began to discern how to combine myvocations of medicine and ministry. Once I truly opened upto that possibility, I began to meet other women who werepriests, ministers, and healers, and they helped me see whatcould be.A calling starts with that core and central part of whowe are—that thing placed deeply inside us by God but thatgrows with the help of others. They mirror and reflect back tous what might be possible.The Rev. Lisa R. Fortuna, MD, received her MDiv from Episcopal DivinitySchool in 2012 and was ordained to the transitional deaconatein June 2012. She serves as an urban resident and assistant clergyat the multicultural congregation of Christ Church/Iglesia San Juanin Hyde Park, Massachusetts. Fortuna is a board-certified child andadolescent psychiatrist, and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Directorof Child and Adolescent Addictions Psychiatry at the Universityof Massachusetts Medical School. She is a bilingual/bicultural Latinaand is passionate about ministry that cares for and connects peoplemore deeply to God and to one another. She is married to MichellePorche and they have a seven-year-old son, Alex.8 episcopal divinity school