The man who was embraced and kissed by Pope Francis has spoken about the experience. I’m struck by the way Vinicia Riva talks about being touched. “He said: ‘His hands were so soft. And his smile was so clear and open. But the thing that struck me most is that there has not been thinking about whether or not to hug me. I’m not contagious, but he did not know. But he just did it: he caressed me all over my face, and as he did I felt only love.”

So powerful was the experience, that this man who has been shunned and avoided for most of his life because of his illness said, “Here I leave my pain.”

A video making the rounds also shows the power of touch. Perfect strangers, posed in intimate, familial poses, come to care about each other.

Chronic nonbacterial prostatitis is samples viagra a type of chronic prostatitis with special condition, which is not caused by an infection with bacteria. Inflammation reduction, dysfunction of cellular mitochondria, high carbon viagra ordination http://www.slovak-republic.org/folk/dance/ dioxide and oxygen. These are the serious side effects and you can’t buy cheapest levitra it without a prescription. Having a quality fast bowler in Dawlat Zadran and to compliment him is Hamid Hassan and Shapoor Zadran have done a wonderful job in the fast bowling department over the years. buy cipla viagra I wonder if the reason we don’t touch more often is because it makes us vulnerable. As I watched that video, I was struck by how exposed the people were. I’ll be honest, it made me a little uncomfortable to watch at first because touch is so powerful. And I am not talking about sex, but rather intimacy and closeness. There’s a reason we describe something that is poignant or beautiful as “touching.” Touch brings healing, breaks down barriers, creates bonds between people. Touch softens hearts.

A couple of years ago, a friend from my bible study organized a service project where a group of us ladies went to a homeless shelter in downtown Dallas and gave pedicures to some of the female clients there. I won’t lie, I wasn’t looking forward to it and it was not pleasant. Grown people’s feet aren’t nice in the best of circumstances, and these ladies did not live in the best of circumstances. But it wasn’t long before the initial awkwardness was gone, and we were laughing and talking together. These suburban women kneeling at the feet of women who had walked a much harder path than we had, but we talked and laughed and bonded over touch.

As a mom, I can get my fill (and then some) of touch. When you have tiny kids, it’s almost too much. By the end of the day, you can want to run out screaming, “Stop touching me!” Gradually, that lessens as our kids become more independent. If we’re not careful, one day we’ll have gone through the whole day without touching our kids at all. We can teach them that touch is limited to very young children and to romantic relationships.

As adults, we can walk through the world without touching anyone outside our immediate family. And then you have those who on the edges of society who may never be touched in a caring way at all. I can only imagine what that does to the human soul. We need to touch and be touched because that’s how God created us.  As a Christian, I’m called to follow my Lord’s example and touch the unclean and the outcast.

When was the last time you had intimate (not sexual) physical contact with someone not in your family?

How can we reach the untouched?