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 Dominican Friars who work full time in the hospitals, where Read more…
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 more about her story here. At St. Catherine of Siena Church Read more…
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 of the Catholic Medical Association will have its first meeting of the Read more…
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 ordained at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Read more…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Dominican Friars Health Care Ministry of New York is blessed with a great number of faithful and dedicated people who bring Holy Communion to patients and their families in the hospitals we serve. Their ministry to the sick and their loved ones is an exemplary work of charity. We are Read more…
The Eucharist, the most holy Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, is “the source and summit of the Christian life” (Lumen Gentium 11). It is at the very heart of our Catholic faith and the depth of its mystery is without limit. Let us reflect on the great Read more…
Bringing Holy Communion to the sick is an important part of Catholic health care ministry. In this reflection, we will consider the gospel accounts of Jesus feeding the multitude in order to deepen our understanding of what this ministry is all about. The Gospel of John makes a profound connection Read more…
The sacrament of Anointing of the Sick, when administered to the dying, is called by the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “sacramentum exeuntium (the sacrament of those departing)” (CCC 1523). Nevertheless, it is not the sacrament of Anointing, but the Eucharist as ‘viaticum’, that the Catechism calls, “The last sacrament of the Read more…
The Anointing of the Sick is a sacrament that is frequently misunderstood. When I receive emergency calls asking me to come to a hospital to minister to a dying patient, the requests are usually for “last rites.” When, during more routine visits, I offer to administer the sacrament of Anointing Read more…
“The Church draws her life from the Eucharist.” With these words, Pope Saint John Paul II began his 2003 encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia. He continues, In a variety of ways, she [the Church] joyfully experiences the constant fulfillment of the promise: ‘Lo, I am with you always, to the close Read more…
In recounting the events of Easter Sunday, The Gospel of Luke presents us with the beautiful narrative in which Jesus walks with the two disciples travelling on the road to Emmaus. The disciples were speaking to each other about their sorrow and disappointment about what had happened to Jesus. They Read more…
Throughout the forty days of Lent, the Church invites us to practice penance by praying, fasting, and giving alms. As the gospel reading for Ash Wednesday (see Matt 6:1-6, 16-18) reminds us, that penance is not meant to be a matter of merely external observances, but is to proceed from Read more…
Christmas is a time of giving. It is the celebration of the greatest gift of all: Our Lord Jesus Christ, who was given to us at his birth on Christmas day. One of the ways we celebrate that great gift is by the giving and receiving of lesser gifts. Christmas Read more…
I was ill and you cared for me. (Matt 25:36) So the king will say, seated on his glorious throne with all his angels in attendance and all the nations assembled before him: some on his right and some on his left. The king will speak these words to those Read more…
The virtues that characterize excellent ministers of Holy Communion was the subject of our last reflection. We considered the virtue of religion, by which human beings render fitting reverence to God, and also adoration, an exterior act of religion by which human beings show reverence to God with their bodies. Read more…
One of the most important parts of Catholic health care ministry is the administration of Holy Communion. This much needed ministry and sacred charge is carried out by bishops, priests, and deacons who, by virtue of their ordination, serve as ordinary ministers of Holy Communion. It is also carried out Read more…