For older students (to help reflect on the crucifixion image as healing):
As a way of focusing on the possibility of Jesus's continuing healing presence in the lives of the sick, reflect on the function of the Isenheim altarpiece.

This shocking image of Christ's pain-wracked body was commissioned by Antonite monks, between 1512 and 1516, for the chapel of a hospital at the order's monastery in Isenheim, 15 miles south of Colmar. There the monks ministered to patients suffering from the painful, and often fatal, leprosy-like disease known as St Anthony's Fire names (as were the monk's themselves) for a figure who himself had known great suffering.

· What effect would the daily exposure to this picture have had on people who were suffering from this terrible disease?
· Is it just gruesome sadism?
· Or does it suggest that God shared in the sufferings of humankind - and continues to do so?

This image, and others by the painter Mathias Grunewald, can be found at the excellent Web Gallery of Art site at:
      http://www.kfki.hu/~arthp/html/g/grunewal/isenheim/

For younger students (to help reflect on continuing Christian involvement in healthcare):

Write a modern day version of the life of Rahere. He is certainly an intriguing figure. Lots of information and images about this jester/monk can be found at:
      www.themediweb.net/Lecture/historyofmedicine/bartsandrehere.htm
What made him change? (Rudyard Kipling wrote a rather obscure poem that seems to suggest that the roots of his change lay in manic depression - this poem can be found on the Jester website at the following address)
      http://www.thenoodlebowl.com/jesters/pages/rahere.html

Students could think of a modern scenario in which a comedian has his eyes opened to the harsh realities under the surface of things - and in doing so is changed.