Sheila Cassidy takes a hard look at the large reserves of patience, love, and compassion needed by those who minister to the sick and dying in her book Sharing the Darkness. The author, who is medical director of St. Luke's Hospice in Plymouth, England, was a doctor in Chile and spent time in jail there as a prisoner of conscience. She has learned from her personal experience of suffering, fear, and loneliness what it means to square off with death.

Cassidy sees her work in a hospice as a ministry of presence: "All they ask is that we do not desert them: that we stand our ground at the foot of the cross." She believes that the hospice movement can teach mainstream medicine much about "The tender wing care" that all patients seek.

Being present with the dying takes its toll on the author who is forced to face up to her exhaustion and burnout. She realizes the need to be "more gentle" with herself and to take time off for the renewal of her spirit. Her chapter on discipleship as listening is worth special attention. Cassidy's meditations on suffering, death, caring, and healing are cogent and spiritually edifying.