Pastoral Care

Mercy Medical's Pastoral Care Department is an important part of our holistic approach to healthcare. Pastoral care is the ministry that attends to a person's spiritual and religious beliefs and inner sources of personal strength. This inner strength affects one's perspective on life and the capacity to respond to and heal life's changes.Our chaplains attend to the spiritual concerns of our patients, participants, residents, families, and staff members. They are members of the clinical team offering their expertise and support in the holistic care - mind, body, and spirit - of each person that Mercy serves.

Our chaplains are professionally trained to minister in healthcare. They are ecumenical by nature in that they are familiar with and open to the diversity of religious expressions in our community. Mercy's chaplains come from various religious traditions such as Catholic, Lutheran, Episcopal, Methodist, and Baptist.

In addition to providing pastoral care support services, Mercy's chaplains provide community education throughout the year and network with local religious communities and their leaders.

Mercy Medical Creed

Responsive in faith to God's mercy, Catherine McAuley answered the call of Jesus to reach out with courage and love to the needy of her time. We, as staff of Mercy Medical, freely responding to call to serve the needy of our time, commit ourselves to follow Jesus Christ in his compassion for suffering people.

Throughout ministry we seek to relieve misery, to address its causes and to support all persons who struggle for dignity. By cooperating with others in works of mercy, we continually learn from them how to be more merciful.

We carry out our mission of mercy first by praying about the needs of our time. We strive to witness to mercy when we respect the dignity of each person, create a spirit of hospitality and do what is right in both word and deed. In response to the demands of our mission, we rely on the Holy Spirit to lead us. The Word of God opens us to recognize the presence of God in ourselves; in those we serve, in this institution, and in the world. We rejoice in God's invitation to seek justice, to be compassionate and to reflect mercy to the world.

Catherine McAuley's Prayer

My God, I am yours for time and eternity. Teach me to cast myself entirely into the arms of your loving providence with the most lively, unlimited confidence in your compassionate, tender pity. Grant me, O most merciful Redeemer, that whatever you ordain or permit may be acceptable to me. Take from my heart all the painful anxiety; suffer nothing to sadden me but sin, nothing to delight me but the hopes of coming to the possession of you, my God and my all, in your everlasting kingdom. Amen.