[Magdalen] parochialism

[James Oppenheimer-Crawford]

In St. Mary's Bonita Springs, the follow up seems to be mainly in the hands
of a group of lay ministers.  One lady was the constant visitor for Mom,
bringing her communion on a regular basis.  Once when I was there, she
asked if I would like to assist, and everyone liked that.
After Mom died, we finally had a funeral for her and a committal of Mom and
Dad's ashes to the outdoor park set up expressly for ashes to be given a
final resting place, and the lady came to that service, and she brought a
friend.
The really neat part of that was, with just my brother and me, my brother
hadn't planned to say anything, but since there were two others there, he
spoke, and I think it did both of us a lot of good.
This just popped into my head as I'm sitting here, but I do not think it
occurred to anyone to ask a priest to come by and give Mom the last rites,
but knowing the staff there, I have no doubt they would have if asked. It
is unfortunately not something I would have thought of, and certainly not
my brother. Another instance of how priests can only help if we keep them
in the loop.
They allowed us to let Dad be a sort of "boarder" in their columbarium
until Mom died, so the two of them could be placed together.  They are
really good people (which is why I have no hesitation of mentioning the
name of the parish).

I think it is also a very nice touch that they have this little
park/sanctuary outside, behind the main altar, where anyone can deposit
ashes at no cost.  I think we would gladly have bought a niche for Mom and
Dad, but knowing how both of them loved the out of doors, the option St.
Mary's presented, in addition to the columbarium, seemed just right for us.

They'll rest there forever, til the sun turns to a red giant and all of
earth turns to ash, which then will salt the beginnings of a new galaxy...

James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
*“A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved,
except in memory. LLAP**”  -- *Leonard Nimoy

On Sat, Jun 18, 2016 at 7:05 AM, Grace Cangialosi <gracecan at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Well, they sure expect it around here--at least, if the stay is more than
> a couple of days. When I was a hospital chaplain, I often found the
> family's minister there, or the ministers of several family members.
>
> On June 17, 2016, at 11:37 PM, Scott Knitter <scottknitter at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> Priest shortage, ya know. But I always wonder how many out of the
> thousands of "families" (I sure wish they'd count individuals) are
> needing visits on any given day? Or even are thinking of having a
> priest visit when they're in the hospital for something?
>
> On Fri, Jun 17, 2016 at 10:22 PM, Lynn Ronkainen <houstonklr at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > Catholic priests do not seem to do much one on one pastoral stuff these
> days. My recent brush with my mom's former parish seemed to make that
> abundantly clear.
>
>
>
>
> --
> Scott R. Knitter
> Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois USA
>