White Mass celebrates healing
By Chris Donahue
Staff Writer
Most people do not like to wait for anything, but waiting for the coming of the Lord can be a joyful, productive experience if we are active as disciples, working for Christ’s peace and spreading the Gospel, said Father Michael Manning in his homily of the annual White Mass.
Bishop Paul G. Bootkoski served as principal celebrant and blessed the health care professionals who attended the White Mass, held at St. Francis of Assisi Cathedral, Metuchen, Dec. 4. The White Mass is an opportunity for the diocese to thank health care professionals and volunteers and to honor their ministry of healing and compassion.
Health care professionals who live in the diocese participated as deacons, readers and gift bearers.
The diocesan Physicians’ Guild works with the diocesan Pro-Life Office to plan the Mass.
Father Manning, pastor of Holy Cross Parish, Rumson, practiced medicine (gastroenterology, internal medicine and geriatrics) in Staten Island, N.Y., before he became a priest. He is also an author, speaker and coordinator of Respect Life Ministries for the Diocese of Trenton.
Advent, the beginning of the Church’s liturgical calendar, means “arriving” or a “coming” in Latin. As Catholics, we wait for both Christmas to celebrate the arrival of Jesus on Earth and the Second Coming, Father Manning said.
Advent should evoke words such as hope; expectant; joyful. “But if you ask people, waiting is something unpleasant,” Father Manning said. “It is frustrating. We become anxious, maybe even angry.
“In the supermarket, sometimes we buy fewer than 15 items, even if we need more, so we can go through the express line.”
Father Manning also used examples from daily life of how waiting can produce a bonding with strangers, such as in a doctor’s office or a hospital emergency room, and how people sometimes get out of their vehicles to chat when they are stuck in traffic.
“We have to talk about the waiting because it builds communities. Because we realize we are Advent people,” Father Manning said. Sometimes, though, we forget we are waiting for the Lord to come again. But we should wait for Jesus as though “we are waiting for our deepest yearning.”
“As medical professionals, we could all come up with a big list of things we yearn for. I yearn for a world where we spend more money on vaccines than weapons.
“I hope we yearn for the day when health care professionals aren’t needed…We may be able to craft a better health care system that’s more equitable and more efficient, but Jesus gives eternal life.”
In his prayer, Bishop Bootkoski said, “Bless these men and women who are dedicated to helping and healing the sick” and “Reward their service by the peace and joy of the Holy Spirit and by the everlasting happiness of Heaven.”
The bishop thanked the health care workers for their service, Father Manning for his “beautiful homily” and the Cathedral Choir, directed by Thomas A. DeLessio.
In a reception after the Mass, Drs. Aldo Damiani and his wife, Suzanne, members of St. Magdelen de Pazzi Parish, Flemington, said they often use their faith at work.
Aldo, who practices internal medicine in Saint Peter’s University Hospital, New Brunswick, said he often reflects on Jesus’ teaching, “do unto others as you would have other do unto you,” when he treats a patient who might be “frustrating or difficult.”
“You put yourself in their shoes when they’re ill, whether it be physical or emotional or both,” he said.
Suzanne, a pediatrician who has a private practice in Highland Park, said when something happens to a child and it’s a life-altering event for the entire family, she prays “to give them the strength to get through what they have to go through because they may not realize or understand what they’re going to be facing. You feel for them.”
Registered nurse Adele Pudner, a member of Guardian Angels Parish, Edison, serves as a school nurse with the Plainfield Board of Education. She sometimes uses her faith for strength because of the large number and variety of cases she sees every day. Examples included students who said they were “sick” when they were supposed to be taking a math test, students who feel weak from not eating breakfast because there was no food in the home and a child who was worried because his father was arrested the night before.
“I tell myself, ‘This is God’s child, and this child has needs,” Pudner said.
*The attached/referenced article was originally published in The Catholic Spirit, the official newspaper of the Diocese of Metuchen, and is protected under U.S. and international copyright law