The image and witness of Catholic women religious working in this healing
ministry strongly conveys certain positive values, such as, the preciousness of
each life as a gift of God and the need to develop its potential. Looking at the
totality of the human person there are four areas of woundedness addressed by
SHMHCC: physical, psychological, intellectual and spiritual.
1. Physical Woundedness
Sacred Heart Mercy Health Care encompasses the care of the human person.
Integral to this care is the understanding that the human person is created by God
and is a body/soul creation. The dignity of the body is preserved at all times.
Physical illness is treated through professional excellence. All means available to
alleviate the particular dimension of human suffering that the patient is
experiencing are utilized. The patient is seen as patient not as a health care
consumer. This is important because to be a “patient” is to understand and
embrace the value of suffering. Human suffering is reverenced as having the
possibility of leading to the transcendent dimension of the total person.
At the same time illness and disease are recognized as an evil and health is
recognized as the good to be achieved. The treatments given are administered in
cooperation with each patient’s participation in the work of their healing and
recovery and with an understanding that this work always involves the patient,
body/soul. Prayer beseeching that the service of healing always partakes in the
Mercy of the Father is constant in the care of our patients. “Mercy signifies a
grief for another.” (Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa, II, II, Q 30) We strive to
serve the patient with heartfelt sympathy for the distress of the patients and their
families. Compassion is always accompanied with the understanding of the gift
each patient and their family is to us and to society. The whole process of
healing, the work of the one who serves and the work of the patient is seen as a
participation in the Redemption.
2. Psychological Woundedness
A second area of human woundedness is found in those who are called to serve
the Church as consecrated women religious, brothers, seminarians and priests but
are experiencing psychological and emotional difficulties.
Affective maturity, as described by Pope John Paul II in his document, I Will
Give You Shepherds, “requires a clear and strong training in freedom, which
expresses itself in convinced and heartfelt obedience to the ‘truth’ of one’s own
existence, that is, ‘to the sincere gift of self’ as the way and fundamental content
of the authentic realization of self. Thus understood, freedom requires the person
to be truly master of himself, determined to fight and overcome the different
forms of selfishness and individualism which threaten the life of each one, ready
to open out to others, generous in dedication and service to one’s neighbor.”
SHMHCC provides a Residential Program that offers support and guidance for
personal and spiritual growth so that the individual may respond more fully and
freely to their call within the Church.
3. Intellectual Woundedness
In a society where secular relativism dominates, searching for the truth becomes
difficult. This has lead to a widespread intellectual woundedness as regards
knowledge of the truth. The Catechism of the Catholic Church and related
documents are used to present the Church’s teaching promoting human solidarity,
love for the poor, a just social order, and charity. In these same documents the
Church’s condemnation of homicide, abortion, euthanasia, and the use of the
death penalty are considered. All these teachings are related to the central
affirmation of the dignity of every human being. To address the area of
ignorance, SHMHCC provides workshops on moral and ethical issues.
4. Spiritual Woundedness
Perhaps as a reaction to the pace of modern life with its emphasis on utility and
function, a desire for greater spirituality and a sense of deeper meaning and
purpose has emerged in society today.
SHMHCC has the privilege of a Chapel with the presence of the Eucharist. The
Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is celebrated once a week followed by exposition and
adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. The Eucharist is a sacrament of love, a sign
of unity, a bond of charity, a Paschal banquet in which Christ is present and
consumed, the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to
us. (Catechism of the Catholic Church 1323). In March 2007, Pope Benedict
XVI identified the chapel in a hospital or clinic as "the beating heart in which
Jesus intensely offers himself to the heavenly Father for the life of humanity."
SHMHCC provides an environment through many religious symbols found in
exquisite art forms intended to elevate the mind to the holy and remind us that our
ultimate end is eternal happiness in heaven.
ministry strongly conveys certain positive values, such as, the preciousness of
each life as a gift of God and the need to develop its potential. Looking at the
totality of the human person there are four areas of woundedness addressed by
SHMHCC: physical, psychological, intellectual and spiritual.
1. Physical Woundedness
Sacred Heart Mercy Health Care encompasses the care of the human person.
Integral to this care is the understanding that the human person is created by God
and is a body/soul creation. The dignity of the body is preserved at all times.
Physical illness is treated through professional excellence. All means available to
alleviate the particular dimension of human suffering that the patient is
experiencing are utilized. The patient is seen as patient not as a health care
consumer. This is important because to be a “patient” is to understand and
embrace the value of suffering. Human suffering is reverenced as having the
possibility of leading to the transcendent dimension of the total person.
At the same time illness and disease are recognized as an evil and health is
recognized as the good to be achieved. The treatments given are administered in
cooperation with each patient’s participation in the work of their healing and
recovery and with an understanding that this work always involves the patient,
body/soul. Prayer beseeching that the service of healing always partakes in the
Mercy of the Father is constant in the care of our patients. “Mercy signifies a
grief for another.” (Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa, II, II, Q 30) We strive to
serve the patient with heartfelt sympathy for the distress of the patients and their
families. Compassion is always accompanied with the understanding of the gift
each patient and their family is to us and to society. The whole process of
healing, the work of the one who serves and the work of the patient is seen as a
participation in the Redemption.
2. Psychological Woundedness
A second area of human woundedness is found in those who are called to serve
the Church as consecrated women religious, brothers, seminarians and priests but
are experiencing psychological and emotional difficulties.
Affective maturity, as described by Pope John Paul II in his document, I Will
Give You Shepherds, “requires a clear and strong training in freedom, which
expresses itself in convinced and heartfelt obedience to the ‘truth’ of one’s own
existence, that is, ‘to the sincere gift of self’ as the way and fundamental content
of the authentic realization of self. Thus understood, freedom requires the person
to be truly master of himself, determined to fight and overcome the different
forms of selfishness and individualism which threaten the life of each one, ready
to open out to others, generous in dedication and service to one’s neighbor.”
SHMHCC provides a Residential Program that offers support and guidance for
personal and spiritual growth so that the individual may respond more fully and
freely to their call within the Church.
3. Intellectual Woundedness
In a society where secular relativism dominates, searching for the truth becomes
difficult. This has lead to a widespread intellectual woundedness as regards
knowledge of the truth. The Catechism of the Catholic Church and related
documents are used to present the Church’s teaching promoting human solidarity,
love for the poor, a just social order, and charity. In these same documents the
Church’s condemnation of homicide, abortion, euthanasia, and the use of the
death penalty are considered. All these teachings are related to the central
affirmation of the dignity of every human being. To address the area of
ignorance, SHMHCC provides workshops on moral and ethical issues.
4. Spiritual Woundedness
Perhaps as a reaction to the pace of modern life with its emphasis on utility and
function, a desire for greater spirituality and a sense of deeper meaning and
purpose has emerged in society today.
SHMHCC has the privilege of a Chapel with the presence of the Eucharist. The
Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is celebrated once a week followed by exposition and
adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. The Eucharist is a sacrament of love, a sign
of unity, a bond of charity, a Paschal banquet in which Christ is present and
consumed, the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to
us. (Catechism of the Catholic Church 1323). In March 2007, Pope Benedict
XVI identified the chapel in a hospital or clinic as "the beating heart in which
Jesus intensely offers himself to the heavenly Father for the life of humanity."
SHMHCC provides an environment through many religious symbols found in
exquisite art forms intended to elevate the mind to the holy and remind us that our
ultimate end is eternal happiness in heaven.
| The Areas of Woundedness |
Sacred Heart Mercy Health Care Clinic An apostolate of the Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma, Michigan |
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