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." She and other Catholics who encounter
death on a regular basis recently reflected on pastoral care of the
dying, God's presence at a deathbed and their common experiences in
patients' final hours. The anointing of the sick -- which Venaglia
described as "a blessing showing that the whole church is united in
praying for this person at this time in their life, not just a death" --
is offered every six weeks and as needed.
The spiritual climax of the Gospel of John, as Father John Waiss points out, occurs at the foot of the Cross, where Jesus utters his parting words: “Woman, behold, your son!” and “Behold your mother!” (John 19:26-27). While these words were addressed to the Apostle John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, the Church has long understood this moment as a universal adoption. To truly image Christ, we must share in His parentage; if we embrace God as our spiritual Father but reject Mary as our mother, we treat Christ as a half-brother rather than our "firstborn among many brethren" (Rom. 8:29). As Origen noted as early as the third century, the profound depths of the Gospel are only accessible to those who, like John, rest their heads on Jesus’ breast and receive Mary into their own homes. This maternal role is deeply rooted in biblical typology, positioning Mary as the fulfillment of the great mothers of the Old Covenant. She is the New Eve , the mother of all the living according ...