Providing care among the poor and marginalized has always required tenacity and perseverance. Failures, discouragement, and even despair are commonplace. In this seminar, Rick Donlon, MD, and Susan Post, D.Min., MBA, explore the normal course of faithful and sacrificial Christian discipleship, and the means of grace available for long-term faithfulness.

Drs. Natalie Carnes and Brewer Eberly discuss how beauty has been among the Christian names for God and why beauty, like suffering, is so central to the Christian story. What do these two parts of our existence—beauty and suffering—have to do with one another? And how can their togetherness help us love and attend in the strange world of medicine?

Dr. Jim O’Connell, president of Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, will share his remarkable journey from serving as Chief Resident in Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital to becoming the nation’s first “street doctor” for individuals experiencing homelessness. Drawing on four decades of caring for Boston’s most vulnerable population, Dr. O’Connell will explore the history of homelessness and the profound challenges posed by co-occurring medical, psychiatric, and substance use disorders among chronically homeless persons.