Stories About Our Ministry During the COVID-19 Outbreak in New York City During the Spring of 2020 The New York Times: Their Calling Was to Lay Hands on the Sick. Then Came the Coronavirus. EWTN: Ministering to the dying in New York during Covid-19 The Federalist: New York Priest Gives Read more…
Today is the eighteenth Holy Saturday of my life as a Dominican friar. This morning, for the eighteenth time, I read with my community this selection from the Office of Readings in the Liturgy of the Hours titled, An Ancient Homily on Holy Saturday, which has come to define my Read more…
In our Reflections during this Holy Week, we have tried to understand, enter into, receive from, and share the Paschal Mystery of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have done that in light of Jesus triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the Sacraments of his Church, the evils perpetrated by Judas the “spy” Read more…
The Eucharistic institution narrative from Saint Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians and the washing of feet narrative from Saint John’s Gospel that we read on Holy Thursday both help us understand what Jesus is about to do on Good Friday. Instituting the Eucharist at the Last Supper, Jesus says, Read more…
“In your house,” Jesus says, “I shall celebrate the Passover with my disciples” (Matthew 26:18). In these words from today’s Gospel, Jesus points to the celebration of the Passover as the interpretive lens by which we are to see the meaning of his Passion, Death, and Resurrection that we will Read more…
The Tuesday of Holy Week has traditionally been referred to as “Spy Tuesday.” That designation comes from today’s Gospel reading in which Jesus declares to his disciples, “Amen amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me” (John 13:21). This declaration came as a shock the disciples, who Read more…
Today we are reminded of the deep connections between the Paschal Mystery of our Lord that we celebrate especially during Holy Week and Sacramental ministry of our Church. We are reminded of those connections by the readings and prayers of today’s Mass. Our gospel reading describes Mary of Bethany anointing Read more…
Holy Week begins with a two-fold feast. It has two names: Palm Sunday of the Lord‘s Passion. And it’s Eucharistic liturgy includes two gospel readings: the one about Jesus’ royal entrance into Jerusalem accompanied by “Hosanna”s and palm branches, and the other about Jesus’ bitter passion accompanied by betrayal, condemnation, Read more…
(This is a research paper. It is longer and more detailed than the “Reflections” on this page. Please enjoy.) Introduction In their article, “Artificial Nutrition and Hydration: The Evolution of Ethics, Evidence, and Policy,” Howard Brody, Laura D. Hermer, Larry D. Scott, L. Lee Grumbles, Julie E. Kutac, and Susan Read more…
“If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23). With these words, Jesus makes sacrificial suffering a condition of Christian discipleship. He says this right after his first passion prediction: “The Son of Man must suffer greatly Read more…
Every human life is uniquely precious, of inestimable dignity, and worthy of being valued and protected. That truth, and the ways in which it is both affirmed and denied in our Western culture, has recently been clarified for me in four different ways that I wish briefly to recount. The Read more…
Since writing my last Reflection, “Let Us Go to Bethlehem to See,” I have gone to Bethlehem and seen. I also went to Nazareth, the Sea of Galilee, the Mount of Transfiguration, the place where Jesus celebrated the Last Support with his disciples, the Garden of Gethsemane, the site of Jesus’ Read more…
We are all familiar with the manger scene. Mary and Joseph kneel by the baby Jesus in the manger with the ox and ass in the stable. They are surrounded by shepherds below and angels above with magi approaching and the star shining in the sky. It is the scene Read more…
The season of Advent, and Gaudete Sunday in particular, invites us to rejoice. In Year C, our readings on Gaudete Sunday include a passage from Saint Paul’s Letter to the Philippians in which he exhorts his readers, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say it again, Rejoice! . . Read more…
May the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. This is a prayer we Catholics pray frequently, especially on All Souls Day and throughout the month of November. It is a prayer we pray at funerals and burials and at bedsides in hospitals Read more…
The Catholic Church opposes euthanasia, understood as the deliberate killing of a person in order to end his or her suffering. We profess that all human life in endowed with dignity and value, whether healthy or sick, productive or disabled. Life is God’s gift to us and is ours to Read more…
The fourth chapter of Saint Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians is awash with paradox. He says in verse 18 that “we look not to what is seen but to what is unseen.” What is the unseen reality to which we look? Saint Paul says it is the “eternal weight Read more…
You probably know the story of Joseph and his brothers that is told in chapters 37-50 of the Book of Genesis. Still, allow me to recount it in summary: Joseph was the eleventh son of Jacob, “the child of his old age” (Genesis 37:3) and his favorite. Out of envy Read more…
Saint Paul is Pro Life. He clearly affirms the goodness of all God’s creation and the goodness of enjoying the good things God has made. He condemns those who “forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving” while telling Saint Timothy that “everything Read more…
“You are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God” (Ephesians 2:19). Saint Paul writes this to mostly non-Jewish Ephesian Christians who were not accustomed to being included in the family of Israel’s God. Saint Paul says Read more…
“The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” So says Saint Paul to the Christians of Corinth (1 Cor 1:18). The message of the cross is the power of God because God acts Read more…
Yes! God always answers our prayers. Jesus assures us of this over and over again. “Ask and it will be given to you, he says, Seek and you will find . . . For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds . . . If you, who Read more…
There are many good, true, and important answers that one could give in response to questions about the mystery of suffering in our lives. However, the best, most complete answer to all our questions about human suffering is found in the suffering of Jesus Christ. The suffering of Jesus – Read more…
The Old Testament Book of Job is about a good man whom God allows to suffer. The first verse introduces the title character, “a blameless and upright man named Job, who feared God and avoided evil” (Job 1:1). God Himself declares, “There is no one on earth like [my servant Read more…
Why is this happening to me? Why did this happen to my child? What have I done to deserve this? Is God punishing me? Why doesn’t God answer my prayers? I hear questions like these frequently. As a priest and a chaplain to suffering patients their families, I get the Read more…
According to J.R.R. Tolkien, author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, there are two kinds of hope. These two kinds of hope are expressed by two different words in an Elvish language Tolkien invented. The words are amdir and estel. Both words can be translated by the Read more…
Saint Dominic is the Holy Founder of the Order of Preachers (the “Dominican” Order) that serves the parish community of St. Vincent Ferrer and St. Catherine of Siena on New York City’s Upper East Side and offers particular service to the health care community in that area and beyond through Read more…
In one of their “Sunday Review” sections, The New York Times published an article titled “Why Doctors Need Stories.” It was written by Peter D. Kramer, a professor of psychiatry at Brown University, whose focus in the article is on the advantages of including stories about the treatment of particular patients in Read more…
We are once again considering the wrongfulness of direct abortion and, more generally, the deliberate killing of human beings in the early stages of their development. We will recall that the term “abortion” refers to the death of an unborn child in the womb of his or her mother and Read more…
A direct abortion is an abortion that is deliberately chosen and is always morally wrong. It is morally wrong because it is a kind of murder, an instance of deliberately killing an innocent human being. Since it is an instance of murder, direct abortion is in violation of the natural Read more…
Human life is a precious gift from Godwho made man and woman in His own image and likeness. The human being has the dignity of being a person, not just a something but a someone, by virtue of possessing a rational and spiritual soul. Human life, which begins the moment Read more…
Human life is a precious gift from God. In its very first chapter, the Bible tells us, “God created mankind in his image; in the image of God he created them” (Gen 1:27). Human beings are made in God’s image, which accounts for the surpassing dignity and value of human Read more…
Spe Salvi (“saved in hope”) is the title of a marvelous encyclical letter written by Pope Benedict XVI in 2007. The Pope begins his encyclical with these words, but he puts them in quotation marks, because Spe Salvi, before being a title of a papal encyclical, was part of a phrase Read more…
In concluding these reflections on organ and tissue transplantation, I hope to be able to provide some guidance to the ethical deliberations of potential organ and tissue donors and recipients as well as policy makers and clinicians: Potential Donors All of us are potential donors. That is to say, we Read more…
When we think of organ and tissue transplantation, we first might think of the donation of fully developed human body parts like kidneys, hearts, lungs, or skin. There are, however, some forms of transplantation that only involve the donation of human cells and other forms that involve material that is, Read more…
In order to ethically transplant vital organs from a consenting donor, it is necessary that the donor’s death be confirmed. This is the principle underlying the “dead donor rule,” requiring that donors of vital organs be confirmed dead before transplant. Were this rule not followed, the result would be transplantations Read more…
Organ and tissue transplantation is a growing area of contemporary medical practice that raises a variety of ethical concerns. This article will consider transplantations from donors after bodily death, including the transplantation of vital organs such as heart, lung, and liver as well as transplantation of tissues such as skin, Read more…
Organ and tissue transplantation is a growing area of contemporary medical practice that raises a variety of ethical concerns. This article will consider the transplantation of organs or tissue from living human donors, examine some of the ethical questions these practices raise, and draw conclusions from the tradition of the Read more…
The right of an individual to follow his or her conscience has long been a matter of dispute in our society. In times of war, for example, men subject to military draft have claimed conscientious objection. Should they be permitted to excuse themselves on that basis? If so, what should Read more…
Dominican Friars Health Care Ministry of New York is an extension of the health care ministry of the Catholic Church. The health care ministry of the Catholic Church is, in turn, an extension of the health care ministry of Jesus Christ. In our reflections on Christ the Healer, we have Read more…
Jesus Christ, in his earthly lifetime, showed himself to be the divine physician, healing bodies and spirits by his power and goodness, as God shining through his fully human heart. Jesus shared this healing ministry with his disciples both during his public ministry and after his death, resurrection, and ascension Read more…
Jesus performed innumerable healing miracles during his brief public ministry. Jesus’ healings demonstrated the power and tender love of God at work within him. They also demonstrated Jesus’ human love and heart-felt compassion for his sisters and brothers in distress. On a deeper level, Jesus’ works of bodily healing manifested Read more…
The health care ministry of the Church’s ordained and commissioned ministers, as well as that of the Christian faithful who are devoted to work of health care, continues and extends the health care ministry of Jesus Christ. In this series of reflections, we consider the healing ministry of Jesus Christ, Read more…
The health care ministry of the Catholic Church is – or at least ought to be – an extension of the health care ministry of Jesus Christ. In this reflection and in those to follow, we will look at the healing ministry of Jesus Christ, how that ministry is continued Read more…
Every year we celebrate Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion. We hear the account of the Lord’s Passion from one of the four gospels. As we listen to this account of the agony, arrest, torture, crucifixion, death and burial of the Lord Jesus, we are, as people of faith, aware Read more…
In the gospels, there are dozens of stories in which people personally encounter Jesus and are transformed by the experience. In many of these stories, people are brought to Jesus through the witness and intercession of others. We find this especially in the early chapters of the Gospel of John. Read more…
According to the Gospel of John, Lazarus of Bethany, the brother of Martha and Mary, was ill, and his sisters sent word to inform Jesus. “Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus,” the gospel tells us. Still, Jesus stayed where he was for two days before journeying with his Read more…
When illness or injury threaten to end our lives or the lives of our loved ones, we may well find ourselves confronted with difficult decisions. Should we try this treatment or not? Should we try to resuscitate Mom? Should we withdraw life-support? How, in the specific situations of our lives, Read more…
In our consideration of end-of-life health care, we seek to understand how we can determine which potentially life-sustaining measures are to be considered ordinary means of preserving life and which should be considered extraordinary means. From our previous posts, we know that the term “ordinary means” applies to safe, beneficial Read more…
When someone is experiencing life-threatening illness or injury, ethical questions about the preservation of life often arise. What kinds of treatments are worth trying? Is it okay to refuse possible life-saving measures? When is enough enough? When considering these kinds of questions, the Church invites us to distinguish between “ordinary” Read more…