Luke 8:43-48

⁴³ And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years,but no one could heal her. ⁴⁴ She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped. ⁴⁵ “Who touched me?” Jesus asked. When they all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you.” ⁴⁶ But Jesus said, “Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me.” ⁴⁷ Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. ⁴⁸ Then he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.”

Reflection:The power of the Holy Spirit is tangible and real.It’s clear that this woman had tried everything to be whole again, but failed each time. However, she believed that she would gain what she longed for by just touching the edge of Jesus’ garment. When she touched Jesus – she received His touch - for power had gone out from Him to heal her. Something tangible and real happened – she was healed and received peace from God.

Response:The Holy Spirit has the power to set people free from the oppression of sickness, despair, and hopelessness. We can receive and experience this reality in our own lives in tangible ways, and we can also believe this for others, so that they may experience this incredible truth. Let’s pray and ask for the Holy Spirit to bring more of His true and real transformation and freedom into our lives. Let’s also ask God to increase the move and activity of the power of the Spirit in the lives of those we are actively trying to minister to, so that they too can experience God’s healing, hope and freedom.

The Hilltop Institute at UMBC — a non-partisan health research organization dedicated to improving the health and wellbeing of vulnerable populations — has released a new issue brief in a series examining hospital community benefits after the Affordable Care Act.

The brief, titled “Partnerships for Community Health Improvement,” discusses a variety of options for collaboration in assessment, planning, priority setting and implementation of health improvement initiatives. It also provides examples of diverse collaboration models already in place among public health agencies, nonprofit hospitals and communities, and examines their efficacy as “powerful forces for promoting community health improvement and systemic change.”

This series is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Kresge Foundation.

Christopher Corbett, professor of the practice of English, laments the passing of one of Baltimore’s eccentric citizens in his latest column for the back page of Baltimore Style magazine.

“…when the bell tolls, it tolls inevitably for another Baltimore eccentric, a species more endangered than the blue crab,” Corbett writes of the passing of restaurateur Morris Martick.

Corbett’s piece, “Last call,” appeared in the March 2012 issue of the magazine.