What are your plans for this year’s Lent? 

On Ash Wednesday Feb. 18, our journey of life brings us to the beginning of Lent. As a hospital priest-chaplain, people often want to know what it is like to celebrate Lent with the sick in the hospital. Just like in our parishes, at St. Michael’s Hospital we celebrate Lent with faith, hope and love. And as Ash Wednesday approaches, there is an atmosphere of anticipation and enthusiasm in the hospital about the popular ritual — the distribution of ashes. 

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Our noon Mass with blessing and distribution of ashes ushers us into Lent. The distribution of ashes to patients, staff and visitors continues throughout the day in the units. I also make my daily rounds of visiting patients to distribute Holy Communion. Family members make the request on behalf of their loved ones who are incoherent to be marked with ashes. As we journey through Lent, I notice more patients want to celebrate the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist. There is also an increase in the number requests for Bibles and Rosaries. 

Lent is a 40-day period of reflection, prayer, fasting, penance and almsgiving. Lent offers us an opportunity for spiritual growth and to be closer to God. On every Ash Wednesday at Mass, we hear the celebrant pray to God that through our Lenten observances “we may be worthy to come with minds made pure to celebrate the Paschal Mystery” (Roman Missal, p. 193).

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In parish communities, the faithful can embark on some of the popular Lenten observances such as fasting and giving up something for the sake of the other as well as participating in outreach programs. However, at the hospital these Lenten exercises may not be feasible to the sick due to their circumstances. Rather, the celebration of Lent is simple without many community activities. 

A very important marker of Lent in the hospital community is Palm Sunday when we celebrate Mass with the blessing and distribution of palms. After Mass, I visit the patients to distribute palms and to offer Holy Communion. Family members of incoherent patients and of the dying request that I bring their loved ones blessed palms. We do not have community celebration of the Easter Triduum: Mass of the Lord’s Supper, Good Friday service and the Easter Vigil. However, by going on my daily rounds of visiting the patients in their rooms, praying with them and celebrating the sacraments, I journey with them in the spirit of Lent.

The sick and the suffering are in the hospital for treatment and healing. Despite their pain the patients see Lent to be of spiritual significance to them as people redeemed by the blood of Christ (Eph. 1:7). They may also see the season in a different perspective from that of the faithful who are in their parishes. I journey with those in the hospital by offering them the help they need to spiritually participate in the Lenten journey according to their situation and circumstances. I remember an encounter I had with Peter, a patient who had come down to the chapel to pray the Stations of the Cross. After praying three stations, Peter ended the prayer. As he was leaving, he told me that he couldn’t continue the prayers because he was getting tired. Peter shared with me that he had spiritually encountered the “compassionate presence” of the Lord in the few stations that he prayed. He said his encounter was different from what he had experienced in the past at home. I have also noticed that patients and their family members see the Lenten symbols — ashes and palms — as God reaching out to them. On one Palm Sunday, John, a visitor, requested that I bring a blessed palm to his loved one Agnes, a dying patient in the Palliative Care Unit. John shared with me that the palm was a source of God’s comfort and peace to Agnes and to the family. 

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So, how are you going to spend your time during this Lent? Lent is the time that we are encouraged to surrender ourselves to the working of the Holy Spirit. Whatever we plan to do during this Lent, Christ must be our focus, Christ who has reconciled us to God (2 Cor. 5:18-21). When we see Christ as our focus we may come to have a deeper understanding of His love for us. 

At the hospital, during Lent as I journey with the sick and the suffering we encounter our God who “daily carries our burdens” (Psalm 68:19). With God by our side, we journey together towards Easter with renewed hearts and spirits.