Healthcare
Feast of the Exaltation and Our Lady of Sorrows
Next week the Church celebrates the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross and the memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows. This pair of feast days is especially important to us in the Dominican Healthcare Ministry, who in the care Read more…
Healthcare
Join Us at the Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage
This fall, on September 30th, the Dominican Friars will host the first annual Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage. This is a national pilgrimage celebrating the Rosary at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington. The parish of Read more…
Healthcare
125th Anniversary at St. Catherine of Siena
Please join us on Tuesday August 29th for the conclusion of the 125th anniversary year of the Dominican Friars’ ministry at St. Catherine of Siena Church. Our special anniversary Mass to thank the Lord for his merciful love shown at this church for Read more…
Healthcare
DHM at the Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage
The Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage is a national pilgrimage celebrating the Rosary at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC on September 30, 2023, the Vigil of Rosary Sunday. This full-day event is hosted by Read more…
About Us
Summer Student Brothers
Each summer the Dominican Healthcare Ministry hosts seminarians for our Ministry Internship Program, offering formation and training for seminarians in the pastoral care of the sick. Interns participate in our work caring for the sick by visiting patients, praying with Read more…
Masses and Devotional Events
The St. Gianna Mass
Join the Dominican Healthcare Ministry for the St. Gianna Mass on Monday May 8th at 6:30pm, offered for couples suffering infertility and miscarriage. St. Gianna Berretta Molla is the patron of mothers, physicians, and unborn children. St. Gianna, born in Read more…
Masses and Devotional Events
St. Margaret of Castello Mass
Join the Dominican Healthcare Ministry and the Friends of St. Margaret on Friday April 21st at 5:15pm for our annual St. Margaret of Castello Mass. St. Margaret was born with many serious physical disabilities, was rejected by her family, and Read more…
Holy Week
Triduum Liturgies
Enter into the mysteries of the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of our Lord with the Dominican Healthcare Ministry and the Dominican Friars at St. Catherine of Siena Church. HOLY WEEK LITURGIES AT SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA CHURCHPalm Sunday:4:00 p.m. Saturday Low Vigil Read more…
Ethics
Life is Changed, Not Ended
The Dominican Healthcare Ministry has published a short pamphlet, called Life is Changed, Not Ended, intended to help Catholics consider their eternal end and make adequate preparations for their own death. This publication distills the experience and knowledge of the Read more…
Masses and Devotional Events
World Day of the Sick, Feb. 11
On February 11, the Feast Day of Our Lady of Lourdes, the Church celebrates World Day of the Sick in memory of the many healings of body and soul given through the apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Lourdes.Learn Read more…
About Us
New Name, New Look, Same Ministry
We are starting the new year by updating the name, logo, and website of our ministry! Now called Dominican Healthcare Ministry, a simplification of the previous Dominican Friars Health Care Ministry of New York, we have updated our website and Read more…
Healthcare Holy Hour
Healthcare Holy Hours, 2023
Schedule of Intentions for the Healthcare Holy Hours, Epiphany to Easter 2023
Catholic Medical Association
Catholic Medical Association Meeting, Jan 5
The Catholic Medical Association is the largest association of Catholic individuals in health care, to help members to grow in faith, maintain ethical integrity, and provide excellent health care in accordance with the teachings of the Church. (cathmed.org) The NYC Guild Read more…
About Us
“God Chased Me” – Fr. James’ Vocation Story
The priests of Dominican Healthcare Ministry each has their own vocation story, and their own path to the priesthood now dedicated to the spiritual care of the sick. On May 21, 2022 Fr. James Ritch was among 10 new priests Read more…
Healthcare Holy Hour
Healthcare Holy Hour Fall 2022
Schedule of Intentions for the Healthcare Holy Hours, Fall of 2022
Healthcare
Dominican Friars on the “Front Lines” in NYC’s COVID-19 Outbreak
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 Read more…
Holy Week
An Ancient Homily on Holy Saturday
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 Read more…
Holy Week
Good Friday
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 Read more…
Holy Week
Holy Thursday: The Actions that Explain the Passion
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 Read more…
Holy Week
Jesus Celebrates the Passover with His Disciples
“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 Read more…
Holy Week
Spy Tuesday
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 Read more…
Holy Week
Holy Week: Paschal Mystery and Sacramental Ministry
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 Read more…
Holy Week
Palm Sunday: Passion and Triumph in Our Time
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 Read more…
Ethics
Understanding Catholic Teaching About Artificial Nutrition and Hydration in the Light of Previous Church Teachings and the Catholic Moral Tradition
(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 Read more…
Faith
CARRYING the CROSS: SUFFERING, SICKNESS, and SACRIFICE
“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 Read more…
Ethics
IS OURS a CULTURE of LIFE?
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 Read more…
Faith
HOLY LAND: JESUS THERE and JESUS HERE
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 Read more…
Faith
LET US GO to BETHLEHEM to SEE
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 Read more…
Faith
“GAUDETE!” ADVENT REJOICING in the MIDST of SORROW
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 Read more…
Faith
R. I. P.
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 Read more…
Ethics
LETTING OUR LOVED ONES GO HOME to GOD
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. Read more…
Faith
LOOKING to WHAT IS UNSEEN: GOD’S GLORY in the SICK and SUFFERING
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 Read more…
Faith
THE STORY of JOSEPH and the PURPOSES of GOD for the SICK
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 Read more…
Faith
THE PRO-LIFE VISION of SAINT PAUL
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 Read more…
Faith
WHO AM I?
“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 Read more…
Faith
THE HEALING POWER of the CROSS
“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 Read more…
Faith
DOES GOD ALWAYS ANSWER our PRAYERS?
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 Read more…
Faith
THE MYSTERY of HUMAN SUFFERING in the PASSION of JESUS CHRIST
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 Read more…
Faith
WHY DO GOOD PEOPLE SUFFER?: GOD’S ANSWER to JOB
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 Read more…
Healthcare
THE “WHY” QUESTION
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 Read more…
Healthcare
HEALTH CARE and HOPE
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 Read more…
About Us
HEALTH CARE MINISTRY in the SPIRIT of SAINT DOMINIC
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 Read more…
Healthcare
THE IMPORTANCE of STORYTELLING in HEALTH CARE
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 Read more…
Ethics
THE ETHICS of BEGINNING-OF-LIFE HEALTH CARE, PART IV: KILLING for the PURPOSES of MEDICINE
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 Read more…
Ethics
THE ETHICS of BEGINNING-OF-LIFE HEALTH CARE, PART III: ABORTION in TRAUMATIC CIRCUMSTANCES
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 Read more…
Ethics
THE ETHICS of BEGINNING-OF-LIFE HEALTH CARE, PART II: THE WRONGFULNESS of DIRECT ABORTION
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 Read more…
Ethics
THE ETHICS of BEGINNING-OF-LIFE HEALTH CARE, PART I: THE BEGINNING of HUMAN LIFE
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, Read more…
Faith
SPE SALVI: SAVING HOPE and HEALTH CARE MINISTRY
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 Read more…