Sweet Pea Ministry

When I was asked me to write an article on how ministry has changed for me over the years I immediately thought of my Sweet Pea Ministry which developed quite by chance.

As I reflected on the topic of changed ministry, I realized that the essence of the ministry has not changed but the expression has. The values and skills I used, first as a teacher, then as a Director of a House of Prayer and as a Pastoral Assistant have found new expression as I age. Prayer, presence, listening and encouragement have been central to ministry for me and as I age, they continue to be at the core of my outreach to others.

When I retired, I had all sorts of dreams about what outreach I would do in my "official retirement" as Pastoral Assistant. Then life happened: my only sibling, Roger, was diagnosed with heart problems, I spent time caring for him and then I got cancer and a few years later Roger was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The journey with Roger was the hardest in my life. as we supported him through death to new life. Life continues and I found myself with more time to reach out to others and that has been most enriching.

Prayer is a large part of my day, and I consider it part of my ministry. Folks often ask me to pray for them and their loved ones. Often, after listening to people and their concerns I ask them if they would like me to pray for them and their loved ones and the answer is always yes. Prayer for our fragile world also is a good part of my prayer time.

Presence to others, looking at them, taking time to listen to their joys and difficulties is integral. I do a lot of that, at stores, in my apartment building and visiting others. I visit folks with dementia and have learned to just be present and to talk with them as we enter in and out of reality.

My Sweet Pea Ministry arose from gardening in garden boxes on the large deck in my apartment building. The first year I moved in I planted sweet peas and shared them with folks. The next year, Diane, who lived down the hall from me and had diabetes, asked me to take over one of her garden boxes and to just plant sweet peas. I was surprised but did what Diane asked. That August when the sweet peas bloomed, I gave Diane the first bouquet. Diane was delighted. Every four days I would pick a fresh bouquet and bring it to her apartment and visit with her.

She enjoyed the fragrant sweet peas so much as she lay in bed with her ulcerated diabetic feet up.  The next year Diane had to move to a care centre. I would visit her there and bring her sweet peas.

Diane died two days after I brought her her last bouquet of sweet peas. Diane asked me to lay them by her pillow so she could take in the fragrance she loved so much. For the last four years I have continued giving bouquets of sweet peas to folks and am always met with delight and sometimes tears from those who receive them and a visit.

Other outreach has developed over the years. After Mass on Sundays, I bring Holy Communion to 91-year-old Nora, and pray and visit with her. I visit the sick in the apartment, in care homes and palliative care and to a mentally ill person on the phone. I lead Liturgy of the Word and Communion Services at one of our large care centres and lead burial services when asked. I do some Spiritual Direction and try to keep in touch with folks, our Sisters included - by phone, email and cards. I find just listening to folks such as friends and store workers, being present to them and giving them encouragement in life's joys and difficulties enriching and am always open to new adventures with folks.

-Sister Lynn Rouleau, CSJ

Image: Annie Spratt/Sixteen Miles Out/Agnese Rudzīte Unsplash

The Minister Lady - Called to Serve

In this day and age, there is a tendency to call all and sundry ‘guys’ (so tiresome, to say the least, don’t you agree?).  So, the other day I am caught off-guard when someone in the hospital where I work addresses me as ‘minister lady’.  To my knowledge, this title is notably bestowed on women of nobility or claimed by singers like Stefani Germanotta aka Lady Gaga, but not on a hospital chaplain. Furthermore, it is rare these days that a woman in general is called a ‘lady’, and in my eleven years as a hospital chaplain I have certainly never been called ‘minister lady’.  This accolade caused me to pause and reflect on all that is entailed in my daily ins and outs as a ‘minister lady’.

  As I mentioned already, I have been a chaplain at Victoria Hospital, one of Canada’s largest, most diverse hospitals, for close to eleven years.  For this ‘minister lady’ it has been both a challenge and a blessing. It has been the context of vast experiences, unsettling at times yet always inviting me to welcome and embrace the opportunities to learn, to grow, to think outside the box, to embrace the constant changes in health care - to ‘enlarge’ my heart. 

Some of you probably know that London, Ontario, is by far not as diverse as is multicultural Toronto.  However, since Victoria Hospital is a regional hospital, patients come from a wide geographical radius.  The hospital is, furthermore, connected to Western University which caters to a huge student body from many different countries and has a large medical student and nursing student body.  On any given day at the hospital there are not only patients of many different cultures and ethnic groups.  There are doctors, nurses, residents and student nurses who are Canadians or foreigners, believers or non-believers, Christian or non-Christian, Catholic or Protestant, Muslim or Jewish, Mennonite or Amish.  And here am I, the ‘minister lady’, a member of a Religious Congregation, in this government hospital with its multicultural milieu just maybe making a small difference in the lives of those to whom I daily minister.

Though I am hired by the Catholic Diocese of London to provide pastoral care for Catholic patients, people of just about every other denomination and nationality also daily cross my path.  In my diverse encounters with Catholic patients I have supported families who are confronted with the sudden death of a child, with patients who received devastating news of a cancer diagnosis, parents coming to terms with the loss of a still born baby.  I have been asked to support palliative patients contemplating the option of MAID (Medical Assistance in Dying) and parents who were advised to have a genetic termination because their baby had severe abnormalities.  All of these encounters were opportunities to set aside my personal beliefs, my values, and any lingering prejudices in order to support these people.  I have sat with a homeless woman admitted for mental health challenges due to drug abuse whose life at first glance looked so very different from mine, and yet I felt such compassion for her in her plight. Listening to her talk about her pain, her difficulties, her struggles, quickly made me realize that we were just two women who each have their struggles, who, in fundamental ways, were not that different from each other. 

Along the way, I learned to handle different theological stances, often being challenged to think outside the proverbial box and am often amazed by how much more we have in common with people who ‘seem’ at first glance so different from us.  Again and again I am invited into the chaos of people’s lives, learning to engage the differences, to widen my heart, to listen and support, to being non-judgmental.  Within the last year or so I have, for example, become increasingly aware of the incredible challenges parents of transgender teenagers face and have become the confidant of staff who struggle to cope with teenagers who are dealing with gender dysphoria, which, by the way, is becoming a far greater phenomenon than many of us perhaps realize. 

Talk about being stretched, constantly embracing the new and different.  All these various pieces of the kaleidoscope of my work as a ‘minister lady’ at the hospital have proved to be a gift and a blessing, albeit in disguise – and often an emotionally draining one.  Many a day I go home thinking to myself, now I have seen it all, and then a new challenge comes along, a new invitation to make room in my heart, in my ministry as a ‘minister lady’ to be a co-creator in building God’s kingdom.       

- Sr. Magdalena Vogt, CPS