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Chaplain’s prayers published
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Two prayers, “Prayer for the Sick” and “Caregivers’ Prayer,” composed by Sandra Lucas, regional director of spiritual care for Humility of Mary Health Partners, were selected this year by the National Association of Catholic Chaplains for publication among its members.
YOUNGSTOWN
Prayers for patients and their caregivers composed by Sandra Lucas, regional director of spiritual care for Humility of Mary Health Partners, have been selected for publication and distribution across the country to chaplains of all faiths.
Each year, the National Association of Catholic Chaplains judges prayers submitted for the World Day of the Sick, observed Feb. 11. Entries are judged without names.
Lucas’ winning submissions, “Prayer for the Sick,” and “Caregivers’ Prayer,” were published by the chaplain’s association on prayer cards and made available to its members for distributions among staff and patients.
The prayer cards have a Spanish translation on the reverse side, which Lucas said particularly pleases her knowing they can reach a diverse population.
As director of spiritual care for HMHP, Lucas, a board-certified chaplain, provides support, guidance, continuing education and other administrative functions for a team of chaplains at HMHP’s three hospitals, St. Elizabeth Health Center in Youngstown, St. Elizabeth Boardman Health Center and St. Joseph Health Center in Warren, three long-term care facilities and a hospice facility.
The team of 19 full- and part-time chaplains includes four priests, four sisters, a Catholic deacon, seven Protestant chaplains and three Catholic laypeople.
Chaplains, she said, visit patients and their families and also staff, especially in times of crisis or at end-of-life.
“We offer prayer, support, Scripture, a listening presence and provide for sacramental needs. We are reminders of God’s love and presence in times of difficulty,” Lucas said.
Prayer is whatever lifts one’s heart and mind and spirit to God, she said.
Lucas, who was born and reared in New Jersey and lived most of her adult life in Maine, hasn’t always been a Catholic chaplain, or even always a Catholic.
Her first careers were as a waitress and proofreader and typesetter in the printing industry in Maine.
Lucas was baptized in the Catholic faith but attended the Presbyterian church growing up. After caring for her bedridden Polish grandmother who she said prayed her rosary every day and had such a strong faith, she converted to Catholicism.
And her World Day of the Sick prayers weren’t her first literary efforts. For many years she has written poetry and articles for which she won several local awards. Also, she writes for Vision, a publication of the National Association of Catholic Chaplains and serves on its editorial advisory board.
Lucas said her writing style is simple, direct and from the heart.
The beginnings of both prayers, “Here I am, Lord,” and the endings, “You have heard my prayer,” are the same.
“I put myself in God’s presence. I make my request. Then, as in the Psalms, the prayer shifts to anticipation of a response.
“There’s a certainty that God, the source of all that is good, has heard my prayer. And if God has heard, then God is with me. There is hope. There is strength. There is meaning,” Lucas said.
Though writing is her avocation — “it clarifies my thinking” — her vocation is being a chaplain.
“Being a chaplain is a humbling but life-giving ministry,” said Lucas, a resident of Niles and a member of St. Rose Catholic Church in Girard.
“There is a sadness in it, but also much joy in knowing you’ve helped people make peace with God and their families and themselves at the end of life,” she said.
People become chaplains for many reasons, but what keeps them in it is the knowledge that they bring hope and healing to others,” she said.
“I’m very honored and pleased to have had my prayers selected for publication. Closer to home, I’m humbled at the response from patients and caregivers. It lets me know the prayers have touched people’s hearts.”