Schenectady Catholics are taking their faith on the road to homebound

"My life's dream was always to be a nurse so I could help people. All at once, everything I had worked so hard to achieve was gone," she said. "For quite a while, I questioned God, saying things like: `You gave me the ability to be a good nurse so I could ease the suffering of others. Now you've taken that away from me. Why?'"

The reason, Miss Burns has come to believe, is that God wanted her to focus not so much on the physical suffering of others as on their spiritual wellness.

Parish effort

Assisted by Barbara Pallante, Miss Burns coordinates about 20 volunteers who divide their time between two Schenectady hospitals (Ellis and St. Clare's). Also benefiting from the outreach ministry are parishioners at several area nursing homes, including Glendale, Hallmark and Kingsway Arms.

There are currently 74 parishioners on St. Luke's Family Visitors' list.

Bringing the Lord

"They can no longer come to Our Lord at church," she said, "so we bring Our Lord to them. At first, we brought the Eucharist to our shut-ins once a month, on the first Friday. But after parishioners expressed a need to receive more frequently, we tried to bring Communion to them weekly."

Some are fortunate enough to be in settings where it is possible to have the Eucharist brought to them daily. Rev. Dominic Isopo, pastor, also makes it a point to visit homebound and hospitalized parishioners.

As a special treat for the past two years, St. Luke's Family Visitors have tried to get as many homebound parishioners as possible to a Healing Mass. When it ends, everyone enjoys a pancake breakfast at the school, hosted by the Holy Name Society. The proceeds are then donated to St. Luke's Family Visitors.

Linking generations

St. Luke's Family Visitors also deliver poinsettias to shut-in parishioners each Christmas. Mass cards signed by volunteers are mailed to homebound parishioners around key holidays, such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine's Day and Easter.

"Basically," says Mrs. Pallante, a 1959 graduate of St. Peter's School of Nursing in Albany who worked as a registered nurse in St. Clare's medical/surgical ward in the 1960s, "the cards let them know that we have not forgotten them and that we still care. They are still very much a part of our parish family."

Coming home

"As a nurse, I saw many patients fall between the cracks after they left the hospital to complete their recoveries at home," Miss Burns notes. "So many people are all alone. There's no one to care for them. That's where our ministry can help -- at least in terms of easing their emotional and spiritual suffering."

Perhaps it is because she knows such pain first-hand that Miss Burns is able to relate so well to the parishioners served by St. Luke's Family Visitors. A 1959 graduate of the School of Nursing at St. Luke's Hospital in Pittsfield, Mass., Miss Burns went on to care for patients at St. Luke's, Pittsfield General Hospital, Albany Medical Center, St. Peter's Alcohol Rehabilitation Center and the American Red Cross. In between, she spent a couple of years as a Visiting Nurse caring for patients in the Arbor Hill section of Albany -- a job she says she "absolutely loved."

Connecting to elderly

"I saw so many lonely old people who hardly ever got any visitors," she explained. "I knew I wanted to do something to help them, but at the time, I didn't know what I could possibly do that would make a difference."

It wasn't until after struggling to come to terms with her own disability that the proverbial light came on.

"Looking back on these past 20 years since my accident, I can see God wanted me to switch directions," she said. "At first, I was so depressed, I couldn't see which direction God wanted me to take. I needed to be healed spiritually -- to accept what had happened to me -- before I could begin to help others."

(11-28-96)

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