Encountering Mercy: Visit the Sick
“Encountering Mercy” is a series exploring the corporal works of mercy during the Jubilee Year through the lens of the people whose lives exemplify them. In February, the Diocese of Camden focuses on “Visit the Sick.” This month’s profiles highlight examples of those who experience this corporal work of mercy in their daily lives.
The 9 a.m. Mass at Saint Stephen Parish in Pennsauken is ending, but one more ritual remains.
“I now call forth those who are going to the sick,” Father Daniel Rocco says, and three people step forward from the congregation. Two of them are Terry Mozer and Earl Nolte.
The priest hands them each a small golden pyx, a case holding one of the consecrated hosts from Mass, and at the end of the blessing tells them:
“Go, sharing with them Jesus in the Scripture, Jesus in the Eucharist, and Jesus in the love of the community.”
On this Sunday, as she has every week for about two years, Mozer leaves the church and drives five minutes down the road to the home of Dolores August. When she suffered a stroke a few years ago that left her with limited mobility, August called the rectory and Mozer became her Eucharistic Minister.
Mozer pulls a chair up in front of where August sits on a sofa and the two clasp each other’s hands and bow their heads. Together they recite the familiar words as August receives Communion.
When the prayer is over, the two chat as old friends. Mozer will stay for at least an hour.
“Dolores knows a lot about my family,” Mozer says, smiling in her direction. “And I know a lot about hers.”
Earl Nolte waits a few hours before heading to the home of Dorothy (Dot) Clother. Mornings can be difficult for her.
Nolte and his wife Patricia have been bringing her Communion for about two and a half years, but their friendship with Dot traces back nearly 15.
The couple first met her at their previous parish where Dot was active as a member of the parish council, a lector, and a Eucharistic Minister, bringing Communion to the sick. When the parish closed, all of them made their way to Saint Stephen’s.
One week the Noltes noticed that Dot hadn’t been coming to Mass. They stopped in to check on her and realized that she needed Communion brought to her home. Their monthly friendly visits turned into weekly Eucharistic visits.
Clother is now 86 and suffering from dementia. She lives in her house with a relative, her full-time caregiver. Their dialogue includes moments of beautiful lucidity among random or repetitive observations.
“She’ll be one extreme or the other,” Earl Nolte says of the different moods they find their friend in during visits. “But we know who she is, so we don’t take offense.”
Earl and Dot chat like old friends, ribbing each other and teasing. But the first part of the visit is always Communion.
Dot clasps her hands together and her face takes on a look of eager expectation as she listens to the readings and prayers. After receiving, she holds her head in her hands.
“When the person you’re visiting really wants to receive — and with home visits that’s always the case — it’s hard to put into words how really humbling it is to be the person who has the privilege of doing that,” Nolte said. “I can’t really express the feeling I get when I’m actually holding the Eucharist in my hand and giving it to the person. I can’t put words to it.”
At one point during the visit, Dot suddenly asks, “Why are you here?”
Earl jokes with her, but then says with a smile, “We’re here to spread the love you created.”
At Saint Stephen’s there are 20 or so active Eucharistic Ministers who visit and take Communion to the parish sick. All of them make at least one home visit every week. The practice is a central one in the Catholic tradition and in faith communities across the diocese. All of the Diocese of Camden’s 65 parishes have a Eucharistic Ministry program to take Communion to the sick faithful of the parish.
“Eucharistic Ministers to the sick are so important because it’s the Eucharistic Minister who, by bringing them the body of Christ, keeps them connected to the church at their time of greatest need. Even though they can’t walk into their church, the Eucharistic Minister brings the church to them,” said Deacon Gerard Jablonowski, director of Home and Parish Healthcare Services for the Diocese of Camden.
“The beauty of it is that connection of the parish community to the patient, whether that’s in the hospital or in the home,” he said.
On a Wednesday at Saint Stephen Parish, the weekday 9 a.m. Mass is coming to an end and Father Rocco once again makes his call for those who are going to the sick. This time eight people step forward and stand in a semicircle around him to receive the blessing.
The group is headed to a nearby Pennsauken nursing home where they bring Communion to the institution’s Catholic residents each week.
The group gathers and prays together in the nursing home lobby. Then they split off in pairs or individually with a list of residents who wish to receive the sacrament.
Anna Cirullo and Roseann DiGiovanni take the third floor. First up is a woman who speaks only Spanish. She asked for a rosary last week and DiGiovanni has brought one for her. Before the pair leaves, the resident asks for the rosary to be placed around her neck.
“Sigue orando por mi,” keep praying for me, she says as they leave.
As the women move from room to room, they stay for a few minutes to ask how the patient is feeling and to listen while they talk.
“The brighten up when they see us,” Cirullo says. “And it’s not us. It’s because we’re bringing Christ to them.”
*************************************************************************************************
The mercy of visiting the sick
In September, 2015, Pope Francis published his message for the 24th World Day of the Sick, which was celebrated on Feb. 11. The day was established by Pope John Paul II as a day of prayer for those who are sick and their caretakers.
“On this World Day of the Sick let us ask Jesus in his mercy, through the intercession of Mary, his Mother and ours, to grant to all of us this same readiness to serve those in need, and, in particular, our infirm brothers and sisters. At times this service can be tiring and burdensome, yet we are certain that the Lord will surely turn our human efforts into something divine. We too can be hands, arms and hearts which help God to perform his miracles, so often hidden. We too, whether healthy or sick, can offer up our toil and sufferings like the water which filled the jars at the wedding feast of Cana and was turned into the finest wine. By quietly helping those who suffer, as in illness itself, we take our daily cross upon our shoulders and follow the Master (cf. Lk 9:23). Even though the experience of suffering will always remain a mystery, Jesus helps us to reveal its meaning.”