In a hospital chapel, you will not find candlelight or incense burning because of the presence of medical oxygen and the respiratory risk that it poses to vulnerable patients. However, when a Catholic healthcare worker kneels in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, he or she is like a burning candle in the chapel. When a Catholic healthcare worker asks for the intercession of the saints, their prayers rise to heaven like fragrant incense. At times, being a Catholic medical professional can be spiritually and physically exhausting. Many healthcare workers face burnout. They work long shifts during the day, as well as night shifts. Uniting their work together with Jesus, the Divine Physician, will help to sustain them in their healthcare ministry.
Many healthcare providers start their day off with a cup of coffee. Catholics are familiar with the Morning Offering prayer. This is a short prayer used to dedicate your entire day, including your works, joys, sufferings, and prayers to our Lord. Making it a habit to say this short prayer before or after having a cup of coffee will sanctify their work. Dr. Adrienne von Speyr, a physician and mystic, suffered from heart disease, arthritis, cancer, tuberculosis, diabetes, and eventual blindness. She offered up her sufferings for the healing and salvation of her patients. Dr. Adrienne von Speyr saw her practice as a physician as not only a profession, but also as a “medical diakonia,” a ministry in The Church, a lay apostolate.
Health experts recommend scrubbing your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. Healthcare workers must wash their hands often during their shifts. It takes about 20 seconds to say two Hail Marys or one Our Father. Reciting these prayers while washing their hands will incorporate prayer into their daily routine while ensuring that they scrub their hands for the recommended 20 seconds. These short prayers help to place a Catholic healthcare professional in the presence of God during their busy shift.
Healthcare workers usually attach pocket-sized clinical reference cards to their ID badges for quick access to information. Catholic prayer cards can also be laminated and attached to a healthcare worker’s ID badge. There are many patron saints for healthcare workers such as Saints Cosmas and Damian, Saint Luke the Evangelist, and Saint Giuseppe Moscati. Catholic medical professionals can have their favorite saint’s holy card attached to their ID badge, to serve as a role model for work or to ask for their intercession.
Sacramentals can be helpful for healthcare professionals as well. Having a necklace with a crucifix blessed by a Catholic priest can serve as a beautiful sacramental. Healthcare workers can use this for spiritual protection at work. Saint Giuseppe Moscati used to keep a rosary in his pocket while he worked in the hospital. This gave him spiritual strength. Also, healthcare workers can keep a small vial of holy water in their lockers for personal spiritual support during shifts and to bless themselves.
Many hospitals have spiritual care and chaplaincy departments. The hospital chaplains are not just there for the patients, but they are also there for the healthcare workers as well. If Catholic priests are available, Catholic healthcare professionals can make time for the Sacrament of Reconciliation. If they have time, they can attend Mass at the hospital. They can ask if a Mass can be offered for their patients. The chaplaincy department can also do presentations for other departments in the hospital, letting the healthcare workers know that they have spiritual support available to them at work.
There are times when healthcare professionals need to share their emotional experiences and their prayer intentions. Expressive writing can help with mental health. Writing and sending your prayer intentions to cloistered nuns and monks in the community can help. There are cloistered communities across the country such as Benedictines, Carmelites, Dominicans, and Passionists who are always willing to pray for anyone asking for prayers. Nuns and monks help to sustain all of the active ministries in the Church including the Church’s healthcare ministry.
Blessed Maria Restituta Kafka was a Franciscan sister and an Austrian nurse who by her life and her death demonstrated heroic devotion to God and to her patients. She hung crucifixes in every room, of a wing, in a newly opened hospital. When the Nazis ordered her to remove them, she refused, and she was sentenced to death for treason. The Nazis offered to spare her life if she abandoned her religious order. She refused, and she was beheaded on March 30, 1943, in Vienna.
The Church’s healthcare ministry is one of the most important ministries in the Church. There is meaning in illness and suffering. The human body is mortal. Catholic healthcare workers serve the Divine Physician and in doing so, they have a chance to join the saints who also served Him in the past.
(Nirmala Punnusami serves as an anesthesia technician in the operating room of MedStar Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C.)
