As the new (and former ’07-’11) director of Pastoral Care for the Diocese of Trenton, it is once again my happy task to commemorate Pastoral Care Week.  The Department of Pastoral Care has evolved since I last sat in this director’s chair, to now include not only Pastoral Care of the Sick, but a multitude of other “ministries of care” offered to the people of our Diocese at various junctures on the road of life.  In these first months of reassuming the role, I have met with ministry team leaders from our parishes throughout the Diocese, and it is becoming clear to me that there is most definitely a common thread connecting the seemingly diverse ministries which make up the beautiful tapestry of Pastoral Care.  

I have come to understand Pastoral Care, in general, as “revealing the compassionate presence of God in the midst of human suffering,” an understanding that serves as the motto for the Department of Pastoral Care. Whether the suffering is taking place in a hospital bed, behind prison bars, in a divorce court or at a grief support group, it is the ministry of compassionate presence which reveals the love of God for the person who is suffering.  Whether it is offered to someone bravely battling addiction or to another who is buckling under the weight of full-time care giving for a loved one, “we are with you, God is with you” is the message of the pastoral visitor.  

When ministering to a person who is grappling with life-and-death matters, as when faced with a difficult pregnancy or an end-of-life decision, the ministry of Pastoral Care offers compassion, guidance and direction.   As Jesuit Father James Keehan, author and theology professor in Boston College, has written, “Compassion is the willing disposition to enter into the chaos of another.”  So go the brave professionals (chaplains, clergy, pastoral ministers) as well as volunteers who give of their time to serve in the many ministries of pastoral care. They willingly enter into the chaos of another to reveal God’s love and presence amid the heartache, fears and loneliness of their sisters and brothers.     

With the 2014 theme of “Spiritual Wellness” Pastoral Care Week is a good time to consider what is the end goal of pastoral care ministries?  As I recently taught at a training workshop, we cannot fix, cure, or solve the source of distress when we make a pastoral visit.  So what is our goal?  As the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago professed, “Whenever we are with people who suffer, it frequently becomes evident that there is very little we can do to help them other than be present to them, walk with them as the Lord walks with us.” 

The best we can hope for is to accompany our sisters and brothers in their most painful moments so that the Light of Christ might illuminate hope and meaning where they might otherwise be difficult to find.  God’s presence is most acutely felt where death meets life, and where pain meets hope.  We attend to those in need, so that they might know that God is present with them, that they are not forgotten, nor alone.  To summarize, spiritual wellness can best be described as accepting the hope offered to us by our Christian faith, in whatever difficult situation we may find ourselves.

 Cardinal Bernardin most beautifully expresses this deep truth:  “Hope posits a future; Jesus’ Resurrection shows us what the future will be … Thus even in death, there is hope, in the midst of desolation, life triumphs.  We have glimpsed God’s power in Jesus’ Resurrection.  We believe that power is also for us”  (“A Gift of Peace”). 

For more information about Pastoral Care training, events or programs, visit www.dioceseoftrenton.org/pastoralcare or contact Deanna Sass at [email protected].

Sass serves as the diocesan director of the Department of Pastoral Care.