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Vol. 19, No. 5
September/October 2009
Vision is published six times a year by the
National Association of Catholic Chaplains.
Its purpose is to connect our members with
each other and with the governance of the
Association. Vision informs and educates
our membership about issues in pastoral/
spiritual care and helps chart directions for
the future of the profession, as well as the
Association.
ISSN: 1527-2370
Executive Editor
David A. Lichter, D.Min.
Editor
Laurie Hansen Cardona
lcardona@nacc.org
Graphic Designer
Gina Rupcic
The National Association of Catholic
Chaplains advocates for the profession of
spiritual care and educates, certifies, and
supports chaplains, clinical pastoral
educators and all members who continue
the healing ministry of Jesus in the name of
the Church.
NACC Editorial Advisory Panel:
Sr. Michele LeDoux Sakurai; Michelle Lemiesz; Linda
Piotrowski; Rev. Freddy Washington, CSSp;
and board representative Norma Gutierrez,
MCDP.
NACC National Office
4915 S. Howell Avenue Suite 501
Milwaukee, WI 53207-5939
(414) 483-4898
Fax: (414) 483-6712
info@nacc.org
www.nacc.org
Recently, my twin sister Mary and I were reminiscing about our early years together, including the fact that our parents and their eight children — four boys and four girls — lived in a house with only one bathroom! We challenged ourselves in that discussion to see how many names we could remember from our old family paper route involving more than 80 customers. To our surprise and delight, we recalled most of them.
It’s funny, but in my youth God used my bike riding to raise questions for me. I recall riding my bike at age 15 on that paper route and thinking about who I wanted to be and what I would do with my life. Was God calling me to study for the priesthood? The answer came slowly into focus. Memories of studying Latin flowed through my mind. After high school, and with a scholarship from a newspaper company, I went off to study for five years at seminaries in Connecticut and Maryland. After much discernment I found my answer. I withdrew from the seminary in 1965 and started a career in business.
After a few years I met a lovely and very kind young woman, Mary Jane, on a blind date. It was really a chance encounter, as we each took a chance. We married and had two sons and a daughter, Patrick, Jimmy (James, Jr.) and Maureen. The following years were filled with great joys and deep sorrows, including Patrick’s death at birth and Jimmy’s death at age 16 in a tragic car accident in our town. Sadly, Mary Jane died seven years later after a long and courageous struggle with breast cancer.
New questions arose. Weary, and clinging to my deeply-rooted faith, I was anxious to move away from the business world after 32 years. I rested awhile, focused on my daughter, as lovely as her mother, and another calling stirred within my soul. With my experience of loss, donation of a kidney to my brother, and grief, perhaps God was inviting me to chaplaincy. It was hard to explain to others why I wanted to follow this path after suffering so many losses. I honestly wasn’t totally sure myself, but I had learned from remembering the past that God would continue to journey with me in questions of today and tomorrow.
I completed a clinical pastoral education residency in 2000 at the Hospital of Saint Raphael in New Haven, CT, and served there as a lay chaplain for seven challenging and spiritually uplifting years. Another memory surfaces: While on call one day, I spotted an elderly priest eating an ice cream in the cafeteria. After I introduced myself, I sat down and told him the gift he had been for my wife and me 10 years earlier when Jimmy was transported to his hospital via medical helicopter. I shared with him how his compassionate, Christ-like ministry on the worst day of a parent’s life influenced my calling to hospital chaplaincy. Was this a chance encounter or was God reaffirming for both him and me our calls to ministry?
It’s been more than 50 years since I rode that bicycle on my paper route, planning my future. I have grateful memories of my parents and siblings, my seminary days, my wife and children, and my second career in pastoral ministry. My daughter, Maureen, a successful middle school counselor in Washington state, and I continue to encourage the ministry of one another.
I retired from active chaplaincy for health reasons in 2007 but I continue to be interested in pastoral care. I’ve been co-facilitating bereavement groups in my parish, conducting workshops at a local retreat center, and trying to share the rich memories of a life with God.
Memories bring new ponderings. I am beginning to listen to yet another call to service in the autumn of my days. I’m restless. Where is the Lord in this new feeling? Maybe I’m being called to relax, enjoy family and friends, cope patiently with chronic illness, deepen the spiritual dimension in my life, and continue to be a faithful and hope-filled witness to the presence of a loving God on my sacred journey. Or through my memories is God preparing me for something else?
James W. McDermott received a master’s of arts degree in religious studies in 2005 from Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT.