5th Sunday of Easter – April 28, 2013

April 25th, 2013

Acts of the Apostles 14:21-27
Revelation 21:1-5a
John 13:31-35

The readings for Sunday proclaim:
-a new heaven and a new earth, a place where there will be no more tears (Revelation)
-a new commandment from Jesus to “love one another as I have loved you” (John)

Considering the events of last week, I found this reflection from Rev. Austin Fleming of Concord, MA brings together the themes of the readings, our feelings and our continued responsibility for health care ministry:

“Oh God!

No matter how sunny the skies,
no matter how clear they appear,
there’s always a cloud of danger above
reminding us: how fragile, how vulnerable
is the life that’s ours…

It might be the threat of illness,
or the volatile temperament of nature’s power;
it might be our foolishness, our own carelessness
or, as it is this week,
it might be the cloud of the danger we face
in other human beings…

How such evil enters the human heart
is beyond imagining, Lord…

How does hatred so overwhelm the spirit
you created and placed in us
that we might love as you have loved
and forgive as you forgive?

We know and trust your light, Lord,
and the clarity, the presence of your love,
but the clouds of danger hover close
and much too close
and so we pray you shelter us
‘neath the shadow of your wings…

Keep us safe until this danger passes, Lord,
and keep safe all those who work to keep us safe:
those in harm’s way and those who bind the wounds
of any who might suffer danger’s hand…

Keep us safe, Lord, and hold tenderly in your arms
those who grieve a loved one’s loss;
and with your healing gently touch all those
whose minds and bodies have been wounded…

Keep us safe, Lord, until this danger passes and restore in us
the hope and trust we have in you and you in us:
your hope that with your help
we’ll build a city safe for all, a haven of your peace…

Keep us safe until this danger passes, Lord,
and as we hold our children in our arms,
hold all of us in yours…”

Elizabeth Keene
Mission Integration

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Fourth Sunday of Easter – April 21, 2013

April 18th, 2013

Acts of the Apostles 13:14, 43-52
Revelation 7:9, 14b-17
John 10: 27-30

Jesus said: “My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” Having parented four children, I was always amazed at how quickly my children, as infants, learned the sound of my voice and would respond with a smile, an ooh and an ahh with the little feet and hands kicking away. As they grew older, they began crawling, walking, or running toward me when they heard my voice. After a while, they would follow me from room to room wanting to be in my presence. As they grew up into children and preteens, my voice was still heard and they continued wanting to be in relationship with my wife and me periodically testing the boundaries. As they moved into adolescence, they began looking for their own identities and distancing themselves from us for a while and my voice was steadfast. As young adults, some chose to continue to be in relationship with us. Throughout the entire experience of raising our family, my voice, our voice was heard guiding, shepherding them. As may be the case in many families, some have found their way and others are still searching. All are loved and all heard the same voice.

The good news, the Easter news, is one of hope and love. Jesus never gives up on us. He continues to love us as we are with all our imperfections. When he came to earth, his ministry was among those who were lost and needed forgiveness. Can our ministry within our families, our communities, our workplace here at St. Mary’s Health System, and in the world be one of hope, love, and forgiveness? Can we be a voice for the voiceless?

“We are his people, the sheep of his flock.” Though we may wander away or grow distant, Jesus continually seeks to find us and invite us back to be in relationship with Him. He is steadfast in his love for us the way parents are steadfast in their love for their children. As we meet patients and residents in need of renewing relationships with God or family, we can assist them in hearing His voice once again. Perhaps we can remind those around us that God’s voice calls out to them in good and bad times. He seeks us until we are found.

Dan Doyon
Pastoral Care

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Third Sunday of Easter – April 14, 2013

April 10th, 2013

Acts 5-27-32, 40-41
Rev. 5:11-14
John 21:1-19

The Easter season readings are generally delightful. The one from Acts shows Peter and the Apostles at their best. Jesus has died, has risen and has filled them with the Holy Spirit. They are witnesses now. They are strong in their preaching of Jesus to whoever will listen. They continue to do so even when ordered to stop by the religious authorities of their day. Peter’s famous line is: “We must obey God rather than men.” That’s something to think about in our own lives. We might sometimes be asked or told to do things we know are not right. We might sometimes be tempted just to go along with the crowd thinking that “everybody does it.” We might need to ask ourselves “What does God want of me?”

The Gospel reading is one of my favorite Easter events. Jesus assists the Apostles with a miraculous catch of fish and provides them with a breakfast picnic on the beach. Try to imagine the Apostles after the death and Resurrection of Jesus. Their life with Jesus for the last three years has now changed drastically. They no longer know what end is up, what to do next or what to expect as they wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit promised by Jesus. They are no longer hiding in the upper room. Some of them decide to go fishing. After all, that is what Peter, Andrew, James and John knew best. It is something they can do together. They fish all night but catch nothing. Then as dawn approaches they see someone on the beach who asks if they have caught anything. They are told to cast their nets on the right side. The catch includes so many fish they have to drag the nets to shore! By now John and Peter know it is the Lord Jesus. Peter jumps into the sea to get to Jesus more quickly and then also counts the fish, 153 in all!

Besides the miracle of so many fish, it is the tender and thoughtful gesture of Jesus having a charcoal fire ready and cooking breakfast for his friends that touches my heart. Most of them had abandoned him and Peter had even denied Jesus. No grudge from Jesus, just tenderness and mercy and a breakfast picnic on the beach. Jesus waited on them and gave them bread and fish to feed their bodies and his very presence to feed their hearts. They were probably all at once speechless, joyful and delighted to see him.

As this Gospel continues in the longer version, Jesus takes a walk with Peter on the beach. He asks him three times: “Simon Peter, do you love me?” Each time Peter responds in the affirmative, quite the opposite of his denial of Jesus the night before he died. Is it an opportunity for Peter to make up for his mistake and now utter words of love? Jesus then tells Peter to feed his lambs. Is this Jesus telling Peter to lead and care for the early Church? We have recently been given a new Pope, Francis I, to lead our Church. May we take the opportunity this Sunday to pray for our new Pope that he might lead and nurture God’s people with tenderness, love, humility and compassion. Already we have seen these qualities in him and he clearly has asked for our prayers.

As members of St. Mary’s Health System we too are called to witness to our faith in Jesus Christ. We are called to care for the sick, the elderly and the vulnerable showing them concern, thoughtfulness and even tenderness just as Jesus did. It is our way of answering the question Jesus asks each one of us: “Do you love me?” If we do, we will take care of his people and serve with compassion and excellence.

Sr. Suzanne Beaudoin, SSCh
Director of Pastoral Care

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Divine Mercy Sunday

April 3rd, 2013

Antiphon 4 Esdras
Acts of the Apostles 4:32-35
1 John 20-29 & John 20: 19-31

Happy spring! The month of April has been referred to as “God’s Comfort.” Surely the sun and balmy breezes; the show of flowers popping out of the ground create comfort physically, emotionally and spiritually after the cold of winter.

The lessons for this Sunday, often referred to as the Sunday of Divine Mercy, are filled with assurance that in spite of the horrific suffering of Jesus caused by mankind that we have been witness to in the past weeks’ readings of the Lenten season, God is a patient, loving father who will never give up on us. Like any loving parent God invites us all, under any circumstances to turn toward home for comfort /mercy.

In the entrance Antiphon: the prophet Esdras calls to us, “Receive the joy of your glory, giving thanks to God who has called you into the heavenly kingdom, alleluia.”

In the reading from the Acts of the Apostles we are given insight into the way in which the first Christians following the death and resurrection of Jesus lived. “The community of believers was of one mind and heart, and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they held everything in common. With great power they bore witness to the resurrection of Jesus and great respect was given them.” There was no needy person among them! All in the community sold their property and the proceeds came to the apostles who distributed to each according to need. Imagine what our local communities would look like today if we, the modern day followers of Christ could “muster up” such love and live this way? No homeless, no hungry, no uneducated, no unloved.

The gospel for this Sunday is a thrilling reminder of the gentleness and compassion of Jesus for the timid and frightened among us. John relates the story of Jesus’ visit to a room where the apostles were hiding behind locked doors for fear of their enemies. Locked doors are no challenge to God! “Peace be to you!” Jesus declares as he walks through. Showing them his scarred hands and side, he breathed on them the gifts of the Holy Spirit. We all minister to God’s sick and poor, here at St. Mary’s. We receive the gifts of the Spirit as well…We only have to ask. On a second visit to the same room, Thomas who had not been present before was in the room. He informed Jesus that he could/would not believe unless he put his hands into the wounds … Divine Mercy, God’s Comfort … Jesus could have rejected this doubting Thomas. After all how much is a redeemer supposed to tolerate?

We may ask that question in connection to our own ministering. Guess what? No less than our Teacher! Jesus invites Thomas to place his hands in the wounds. Thomas as expected declares, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus comes back with a typical gentle but pointed reply, “OK, Thomas, seeing is believing. However, more blessed are those who have not seen, but have believed.”

That my colleagues and friends on this journey is all of us! Go well into God’s comfort of the promise of an everlasting spring!

Elizabeth Lowe, Chaplain BC
Pastoral Care

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Easter Sunday – March 31, 2013

March 27th, 2013

Acts of the Apostles 10: 34a, 37-43
Colossians 3:1-4
John 20: 1-9

I have risen and I am still with you, alleluia. (Psalm 139:18, 5) These words are full of hope especially after living in our individual wildernesses for forty days and forty nights. As I ponder the mystery of the Resurrection, I am reminded that all of life is full of mystery. There is so much we don’t understand and yet we are called to believe and to remain curious. It is not always easy. Living in a world that wants absolutes, we are reminded time and again that there are no certainties in this world.

We spend our whole lives seeking the Lord. During the past forty days, we have spent time looking inward, examining our lives, and contemplating His message of love. His words, “I have risen and I am still with you” bring us a sense of peace not only on Easter but during our entire lives. While Jesus was among us, he delivered a simple message: To love God with our whole heart, our whole soul, our whole being and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Sometimes the simplest things can be the most difficult to do. On Good Friday, Jesus gave us two examples to follow: He loved God the Father with his entire being and yet he doubted for a moment as he said, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” However in the end, He trusted and did the Father’s will. He also showed how us to love when he forgave his enemies saying, “Forgive them, Father! They don’t know what they are doing.” To give of one’s self and to put others before ourselves are real Christian values. Is that not our mission?

As believers in the message of Jesus, we are asked to pick up our crosses daily and follow him. The road to his crucifixion was not an easy one. Is our relationship with God one of love? How do we show love and caring for our neighbors, even the difficult ones? Can we forgive as Jesus forgave those who trespassed against him? “I have risen and I am still with you.”

As we live out the daily mission of compassion, excellence, stewardship, and respect here at St. Mary’s Health System, let us remember what we are truly about. It is not about us individually, getting ahead, or making money. We are here to do God’s work. We are called to love God and one another. On the really difficult days and the good days, let us always remember Jesus’s words: “I have risen and I am still with you.” Alleluia!”

Dan Doyon
Pastoral Care

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Palm Sunday March 24, 2013

March 15th, 2013

Isaiah 50:4-7 Philippians 2:6-11 Luke 22:14-23:56
This Sunday we begin our journey into Holy Week, the highlight and the most sacred time of our year as a Christian people. Palm Sunday beings with exaltation (the crowds welcome Jesus as “king,” waving palms and shouting “Hosanna”) and ends in abandonment on the cross when Jesus cries out, “Why have you forsaken me?”

This theme of abandonment is apparent in two ways in the readings. Jesus is abandoned by his apostles and even feels abandoned by his God on the cross. Yet in Paul’s letter to the Philippians, Jesus also abandons his “equality with God” and in the Gospel, he abandons his human dignity and even his life in order to be faithful to God and to serve humanity.

This year Palm Sunday falls on March 24 which is the anniversary of the date of the martyrdom of Archbishop Oscar Romero in El Salvador in 1980. He also knew about abandonment: he was selected as a “safe” choice to serve as Archbishop because of his “stay with the status quo” approach. But when one of the priests of his diocese was killed for standing up for the poor, Romero experienced a conversion and also began to advocate for the poor, much to the dismay of the government and the church hierarchy. Romero struggled with the question, “How do we speak of God in the midst of unjust suffering?” His response was that we can stand in solidarity with those who are suffering and work to prevent or eliminate the unjust suffering. Romero believed “all of us can do something.”

Archbishop Romero was assassinated while presiding at a Mass in a hospital chapel in El Salvador on March 24, 1980.
Palm Sunday invites us to explore these two aspects of feeling abandoned in our own lives as well. When have you felt abandoned by family, friends or God? What or who helped you persevere? Certainly our patients and residents might identify with this feeling of abandonment as well. Are there times when you have been willing to abandon your own plans, dreams or self-interest as a sacrifice for those you love or in service to our patients, residents and families? All of us can do something to brighten someone’s day: offer a welcoming smile, provide a healing touch, extend a listening ear.

The schedule for Holy Week services in the chapel at St. Mary’s Residences is:
• Palm Sunday Mass: March 24 at 9:30 am
• Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord’s Supper: March 28 at 3:00 pm
• Good Friday service: March 29 at 3:00 pm
• Easter Sunday Mass: March 31 at 9:30 am

Elizabeth Keene
Mission Integration

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Fifth Sunday of Lent

March 8th, 2013

First Reading: Isaiah 43: 16-21
Second Reading: Philippians 3: 8-14
Gospel: John 8: 1-11

It was at a religious education conference a number of years ago attended by almost 1,000 people that Mother Teresa was the featured afternoon speaker. About a half-hour before the event, people began to congregate in the auditorium, milling about meeting colleagues and sharing shop talk. The room was noisy and full of people going this way and that. About 10 minutes before the hour, the Chairperson walked out on the stage to adjust the microphone. Unbeknownst to him, Mother Teresa followed him out. Immediately, as if by some silent signal, the entire auditorium became totally still and quiet. All eyes turned to the stage in one sweeping movement. The air was electric. This tiny woman’s presence was so intense that hundreds of people were immediately affected. The encounter was overwhelming.

If this tiny woman could affect so much in so many, what would an overwhelming encounter with Jesus affect?

The center of this gospel is not so much the woman or her sin of adultery, but a personal encounter with Jesus. Encountering Jesus always exposes the truth – both the woman and the crowd learn the truth about their own sin. The crowd was led to the truth that they are more like the woman in also being sinners than they would want to admit.

The woman is led to the truth of her own sinfulness (Jesus: “sin no more”). They, and we, are not that different. We are all sinners who need to encounter Jesus, ask the truth about ourselves, and receive Jesus’s mercy. Encounter with Christ is the occasion for changing both the condemners and the condemned.

These encounters with Jesus bring about two changes: those who are willing to condemn no longer condemn (“they went away”), and the one condemned is no longer condemned (“neither do I condemn you”).

Although at face value, this gospel doesn’t seem to deal with the repentance motif of the last two Sundays, at closer look, it does. For repentance means turning away from sinful behavior because one has encountered the One who is the author of truth and holiness. It is this encounter with Jesus that enables repentance in our lives.

Repentance, then, includes both a dying and a rising. Changing our ways is the dying; a new relationship with Christ is the rising. The deepest truth about ourselves lies not so much in recognizing our sinfulness (as important as that is!), as it lies in deepening our relationship with Christ.

Encountering Christ and desiring to be more like him is what calls forth from us a repentant attitude. The closer we become to Christ, the more able we are to recognize our own sinfulness (that which weakens our relationship with him) and repent of our ways. Then we hear Christ say to us, “Neither do I condemn you.”

What truth about yourself does Jesus expose, as you go about your day encountering him in patients, residents, and co-workers?

Rev. Joseph Manship
Pastoral Care

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Scripture Reflection for the Fourth Sunday of Lent

March 8th, 2013

Joshua 5:9-12 2Corinthians 5:17-21 Luke 15:1-3.11-32

As I pondered these three readings, I immediately saw a connection. It is about change, from the old to the new, with an added dimension of reconciliation. It is definitely appropriate for us during this Lenten season. In the first reading, through Joshua, God reminds the people that now they are in the Promised Land and are able to grow their own food so they no longer need the manna. Things have changed from their old life in the desert to a new life that God had promised them. They were home now.

St. Paul speaks about the old things having passed and new things having come. Is that what is happening to us during Lent? Have we given up a bad habit, unhealthy living or even some form of sin or selfishness to take on a good habit, healthy eating and exercise or greater kindness and generosity? Perhaps more prayer and some giving of alms to the poor? All of these would be positive change. Is there a need for reconciliation with some family member, co-worker or neighbor? Now is the time!

The Gospel tells us the famous story or parable we have known as “The Prodigal Son.” In many circles today it has been renamed as the “Parable of the Forgiving Father.” Jesus tells a story of a young man who demands from his father his inheritance, now… The young man in his immaturity and desire for immediate gratification takes off and spends it all on the pleasures of life, whatever that meant for him at the time. Later when he has nothing left, is starving and eating the food of the hogs he is tending, he comes to his senses. He realizes that back home his father’s hired hands are eating well and have a place to live. He decides to go home and admit to his father that he has sinned against him and against God and that he does not deserve to be called his son, but would be grateful to be treated as a hired hand.

Meanwhile the father has been yearning for his son to come home and even wondering if he were dead or alive. Every day he would go to the end of the road hoping to see him returning. One day, the father caught sight of him in the distance, ran to greet him and embrace him. The father ordered a feast to celebrate his homecoming and dressed him in new clothes and sandals. He finally had come home. The forgiving father’s love was full of compassion and tender mercy. The message of Jesus’ parable is simply that God is exactly like the forgiving and compassionate father. He is tender and merciful and will take back any one of us who comes back home to God. It will be cause for great celebration! There is an older brother in the story who is not as kind and merciful. He is perhaps jealous of the father’s lavish love towards the younger brother and is sort of saying “How about me? I’ve been here all along and you haven’t given me a party with my friends.”

Which character am I? Am I the errant brother who returns in sorrow and hope? Am I the jealous brother who can’t rejoice over the homecoming of his younger brother? Am I like the compassionate and forgiving father? These are interesting questions to ponder. Let this story be an invitation to reconciliation with our God, with a neighbor or a family member with whom we have been estranged.

As we serve our patients, residents or clients in St. Mary’s Health System, let us have hearts full of compassion. Compassion does not judge; it forgives, excuses and offers understanding and respect.

Sr. Suzanne Beaudoin, SSCh
Director of Pastoral Care

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Third Sunday in the Lenten Season – March 3, 2013

February 26th, 2013

Exodus 17:3-7
Ezekiel 36:23-26, Romans 5: 1-8
Gospel: John 4:1-46
*optional year A readings for RCIA

Theme ~ Being in relationship with God quenches our thirst, like water to the parched and dry.
As we reflect on the scripture readings for today we observe that each reading focuses on some need the people have that is satisfied by water. Water cools, cleanses, refreshes, heals and quenches thirst.

God speaks to us through Ezekiel the prophet saying, “When I prove my holiness among you I will gather you from all over; and I will pour clean water upon you and cleanse you from all impurities, and I will give you a new spirit.” This is God speaking…what authority has ever addressed their subjects with such loving humility? “When I prove my holiness?” It would seem we are the ones who have to prove something to God!?

In Exodus God does prove God’s holiness by aiding Moses in leading the poor, lonely and bewildered people out of Egypt and to a promised land. Water enters into this rescue. Children, elders and livestock are dying from thirst. God directs Moses to strike the rock with his staff. Water gushed from the rock and the people drank as did their livestock. They were saved.

We move forward in time. God in human form who seeks to love us and to quench our thirst, has lived among us for almost thirty three years. One day while traveling through Samaria, Jesus’ ministry takes him to Sychar where history tells us, Jacob had built a well. There he meets a Samaritan woman while he sits to rest after hiking up the hills. She is gathering water and he requests a drink. St. John describes the encounter emphasizing the danger for both Jesus and the woman should they be seen talking. The meeting is filled with significant conversation in which the imagery of water carries true spiritual importance. This meeting is pregnant with humor, personal insights, honesty and joy.
“There is a real answer to thirst in experiencing Jesus Christ!”

These words may serve to remind us of the emptiness we often feel when we are attempting to figure out life’s challenges on our own. We may feel shallow, lost, dry. When we turn to Jesus and call on him for help, we experience relief such as when a friend comes to be by our side.

As one who ministers here at St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center, I have seen so many of you…nurses, CNA’s, therapists, aides, leaders …come into a patient’s room to swab a dry mouth, to moisten dry lips, to apply cold therapy to a fevered brow or swollen limb. Some come to listen, calm a fear, wipe away tears, assure. There are many ways to quell thirst. Thirst comes in many forms. Whenever we take part in relieving another’s dryness (emptiness, thirst.) we are doing God’s work. God is a generous and just CEO. God will reward your every kind act.

…for anyone who drinks it, says the Lord,
the water I shall give will become in them
a spring welling up to eternal life.
John 4:13-14

Elizabeth Lowe BCC
Pastoral Care

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First Sunday of Lent

February 15th, 2013

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the season of Lent, the 40 days of preparation leading to Easter. The readings for the first Sunday of Lent offer profound challenges for our lives today.
The Gospel reading from Luke is the passage when Jesus is led into the desert and is tempted by the devil. If you’re like me, you probably haven’t spent much time in the desert or the wilderness. But spending time alone and without normal comforts tends to reveal two things: what we miss and what we fear. Recently two of my colleagues had an experience with a health care leadership institute where they had to camp out entirely by themselves – a sort of “Outward Bound for the soul.” Both of them dealt with extreme weather conditions and one of them slid down a hill in her tent due to torrential rain. The other colleague also dealt with wind and rain and then just as she completed setting up her shelter (a small tarp), she heard loud screaming outside. She writes, “I was scared-trying to wrap my brain around who was screaming and why. I climbed out of my shelter to investigate and heard the screaming again. I looked towards the direction the screaming was coming from to see an owl screaming while swooping down to get its prey a few hundred feet away. I kind of felt silly how scared I was when I saw it was an owl. The rest of the night was easy after that…”
Intentionally putting ourselves in a situation to confront what we miss and what we fear can lead to some uncomfortable situations and interesting questions. But ultimately, like my colleague, once we face those fears and sit with some of those questions (“Why do I dread being alone?” “Why do I need chocolate to make it through this?”), we may find “the rest of the night was easy.” The temptations Jesus faced (whether or not to opt for power, prestige and possessions) helped prepare him for his public ministry and ultimately, helped him decide to whom he belonged.
During these 40 days, we are also invited to reflect on our lives and to whom we belong. Sr. Joan Chittister writes this about the season of Lent:
“Lent is a call to weep for what we could have been and are not. Lent is the grace to grieve for what we should have done and did not. Lent is the opportunity to change what we ought to change but have not… Lent is about becoming, doing and changing whatever it is that is blocking the fullness of life in us right now. Lent is a summons to live anew.”
This Lent, whatever your practice may be (the church suggests fasting, praying and giving to the poor), find some time and ways to open your heart to what God has in store for you-fullness of life. We honor this each day as we pay attention to patients’ physical, emotional, spiritual and social needs. Do you honor these areas of your own life as well?
Elizabeth Keene
Mission Integration

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