The sacrament of the anointing of the sick is just one way priests and chaplains can minister to the dying and their families. They -- along with others in pastoral care ministry -- can also pray, sing, read Scriptures, counsel, help with arrangements and mediate conflicts. They even grant final requests. One patient at Our Lady of Mercy Life Center nursing home in Guilderland, for example, expressed a lifelong desire to see a certain play. Marie Venaglia, the Catholic chaplain, rented a DVD from the library and played it for her. After residents die, the center holds a service for family, staff and visitors. It also has periodic memorial services. "It's another form of closure, another way to talk about how (the bereaved are) doing," Venaglia told The Evangelist, newspaper of the Albany Diocese. "Death is a natural process. We can speak freely about it. It's not all medical. The pastoral ministry here is all incorporated into the whole care." ...
James 1:19 tells us that we should "be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger..." These are the thoughts God places on my heart.