Pastoral Care to the Homebound & Hospitalized
"When someone was sick and they couldn't make it to Jesus, Jesus went to them. We continue this tradition today."
When a parishioner is sick and can't make to Mass, we miss them. Pastoral Care Ministers bring the love of our parish family to the sick and hold the hands of those who can't be there to hold our hands at the Lord's Prayer on Sunday.
When someone's illness causes them to be hospitalized, homebound or in a nursing home for a significant period of time, a trained member of our community will visit them. During the visit, the pastoral care minister will bring Communion and pray with the person who is sick.
The primary goal of the Pastoral Care Minister is to bring Christ's listening and accepting presence to the bedside of the ill person. While doctors and nurses provide physical health care and advice, the pastoral care minister can help tend to the spiritual dimension of illness.
Pastoral Care Ministers are people who ask others how they are doing without feeling the obligation to provide a solution for problems; allow others to express their own feelings without telling them how they should or should not feel; listen to others without telling them what is best for them; accept others as they are; sit with others in their pain and
understand and value the faith community as necessary for spiritual growth.
For more information, call the parish office at 201-327-1313 ext. 35.
Part of our ministry to those struggling with illness is the celebration of the sacrament of Anointing of the Sick. |
