COURTESY MARYMOUNT HOSPITAL
Marymount Hospital’s Prayer Partners Team leads a unique ministry offering spiritual support to patients, visitors and employees through special prayer boards.
Marymount Hospital’s Prayer Partners Team leads a unique ministry offering spiritual support to patients, visitors and employees through special prayer boards.
GARFIELD HEIGHTS-When Bev Macko’s, 94-year-old mother, Mary, came to Marymount Hospital’s emergency room, her first thought was the hospital’s Prayer Partners Ministry.
“I strongly believe in the power of prayer,” she said. Macko, who is assistant administrator in surgical scheduling at the hospital, has been a part of the ministry since its founding in 2006. “I definitely wanted to be involved.”
Macko immediately called Gary Forman, the hospital’s administrative director of Cardiopulmonary Services and one of the founders of the ministry who also is an ordained minister, who came right to her office to pray with her.
Later, he sent an e-mail to the other 70 “partners” of the ministry, who have volunteered to pray for anyone in need, to do the same. Requests like these are also placed on Prayer Boards, which are located throughout the hospital. Each have prayer request cards with a place for the name and date and options to choose from, including sickness/surgery, family issues/child, relational, death or financial and a space for comments.
Everyone is encouraged to make a request, employees, volunteers and visitors alike. The partners are scheduled to regularly review the requests on a rotating basis and pray for those intentions. The hospital’s 1,700 employees are encouraged to participate in this ministry. “We want to involve them to help us live out the mission,” Forman said.
“Acceptance to of the ministry has been universal,” he continued. “We’re daily adding to this initial group, including physicians, nurses and volunteers. It’s a grassroot, inclusive effort and a part of the hospital’s culture.” Most are lay people of different faith traditions participating. Sister Betty Gulick, a Sister of St. Joseph of the Third Order of St. Francis and director of Mission Services, indoctrinates all new employees at their orientation. “This is a unique program,” she said. “I’ve never known of one like this at a hospital.”
Macko’s mother, who is very religious according to her daughter, was blessed as the nurses, along with her daughter, prayed with her throughout her procedure. “I could just feel that other people were praying for her, too,” the younger Macko said.
Sister Mary Alice Jarosz, a Sister of St. Joseph of the Third Order of St. Francis and chairman of the Mission Committee, which originated the idea of the Prayer Partners Ministry, believes that it helps hospital employees remember they are engaged in a ministry, uniting the body and the spirit to promote total, active healing.
“I’m amazed at how it took off,” she said. Within the first year, there were about 1,200 requests and they grow daily as does the entire ministry. “It helps make the connection with medicine and spiritual support, which frequently leads to actual healing.”
Sister Gulick agrees wholeheartedly. “Prayer is universal, people believe in prayers,” she said. “The ministry encourages healing of body, mind and spirit.”
Forman actually first saw a Prayer Board at the Motherhouse of the Ursuline Sisters and thought it was something that could fill a void he felt was at the hospital. Marymount, which was founded in 1949 by the Sisters of St. Joseph, Third Order of St. Francis, is now staffed by more lay people, but Forman and the others wanted to keep their mission alive. “Although the sisters are not as visible as they once were, this ministry enlists employees to continue to live out their mission, to serve patients with respect and dignity.”
That idea was heartily accepted and now there are 11 visible, wooden framed Prayer Boards with places for the prayer requests on its wooden frame throughout the hospital and at Villa St. Joseph, a skilled nursing facility on the grounds of the Marymount campus in Garfield Heights.
Forman hopes to increase the ministry’s visibility by encouraging the medical staff to pray with their patients. “We’d like to empower them,” he said. “Prayer is universal. People believe in prayers.”
Prayer Boards are just a part of the ministry. Anyone can call in a prayer request at 216-587-7803 or the Web site at www.marymount.org to make a request. “It’s been a bit hit with everyone,” Forman said.
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