Last summer, young folks involved with SPARK!, a Trinity Episcopal Cathedral service program, constructed a labyrinth in the Chapel Courtyard at Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center in Northwest Portland, hoping it would help patients and their families through the medical and spiritual challenges that can accompany hospitalizations.

Labyrinths are meditative pathways resembling mazes. The idea: Slow down, take deliberate steps, make a spiritual journey. The one at Good Sam was made of interlocking puzzle pieces and patterned after one in Chartres Cathedral, southwest of Paris, though on a far smaller scale.

Next Tuesday, 12- to 14-year-old SPARK! students will be back at Good Sam to set up the labyrinth again and adorn the courtyard with some new plantings.

"It is a very touching and beautiful garden," said Megan Turnell, the hospital's public relations and community relations specialist, "garden and the service and commitment of these middle school students to the garden is also very compelling."

- Katy Muldoon; twitter.com/katymuldoon

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Labyrinth, SPARK! students help with healing at Good Samaritan