Fr Seamus Maguire

This is a series of short stories by Fr Seamus Maguire that have been inspired, for the most part, by his experiences as chaplain at the San Fernando GeneralHospital.
Fr Seamus hopes that this series of anecdotes may help to foster vocations to the priesthood and religious life.
Fr Seamus served the San Fernando Parish between 1995 and 2006. He has since returned to West Virginia, USA.

Gerard was a fellow patient of Michael. He loved to hear him sing The Old Rugged Cross and other hymns he knew and loved. Gerard told me that he was actually baptised an Anglican, but that at an early age he was introduced to the Catholic Church when his grandmother adopted him.

I placed a little picture of Our Lady on the wall in his room, and told him to pray to her when he was unable to sleep at night, and even during the day.

Mary our Mother soon won his heart, but he still needed instructions in the Catholic Faith. I found that the “Creed” was an easy way to teach the main doctrines of our faith, as well as running through the Seven Sacraments.

By getting to know all that Jesus has done for us – all the love and gifts He has given us – it is easy to develop a desire for His Mercy, which we find in the sacrament of Penance. The amazing gift of the Eucharist would naturally follow.

Gerard slowly ripened in his love for Jesus and His mother Mary. He would receive the reward of his perseverance by receiving the very Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ. For two weeks Gerard enjoyed that Holy Communion, and then he died.

Isn’t it strange that we all want to know how a person died? “Don’t just say, ‘He suddenly died’ give us the details,” we ask. Well, Gerard loved to hear me pray to him (not yet with him), and we prayed together on Monday – and he received Holy Communion, of course. I for my part, loved to see the shine in his eyes and the slow broad smile that crossed his pain-filled face when he received Holy Communion.

The next day (Tuesday) I was in a hurry to get to ICU, so I went to his open window and called in to him that I was in a hurry and would come back and bring him Holy Communion.

Gerard did not answer me. As I looked into the room more attentively, I saw that the bed was empty, even the sheets had been taken away. I went into the AIDS ward and spoke to the nurse. She said that he had died about an hour and a half before.

Gerard was “pain-filled” and it showed in his face, but he heard the Scripture phrase “Take up your Cross and follow me” and he tried to do just that. In our culture, we do not wish to hear of any cross, let alone the painful cross of Jesus. Our culture wants the luxuries, the bars, the movies and TV and all the eats and drinks possible.

We Christians believe that there is a greater meaning to life than pleasures. It is that of reaching out to those who are needy, those who are suffering (like Gerard) and teaching them to mingle their sufferings with those of our Saviour.

Perhaps you feel this “Christian way” with a great intensity. Perhaps you would like to be a chaplain to the ill in hospital. Speak to your pastor.