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.

When you have a large hospital to take care of, as well as several private hospitals, not all the incidents that happen as you do your rounds are spiritual. Some things can be downright hilarious.

On one occasion I was chatting with an elderly lady in a private hospital and on the table beside the bed was a bowl of nuts that looked very inviting.

As we chatted, I took up a nut and nodded to her (for permission to eat it) and she nodded back as she continued her story. I enjoyed a couple more of the nuts as she rattled on.
As I was leaving, I suddenly remembered the nuts she had allowed me to take – “Oh,” I said, “and thank you for the nuts.”

“Oh you’re welcome, Father,” she replied. “I don’t need them anymore. Indeed I was going to throw them out. “You see,” she explained “I don’t have any dentures in, so I can only suck the chocolate off the nut and then I pip it into the bowl!” How do you think my stomach felt as I walked down the stairs to the car?

Someone said that, “laughter is the sunlight of the soul”
Here was a woman ill in the hospital, yet she retained her sense of humor. All her problems were made a little lighter by her smile and chuckle; and she spread it around, one person at a time.

These thoughts bring to mind the words of Mother Teresa of Calcutta to her Sisters.

“We are at Jesus’ disposal.
If He wants you to be sick on bed,
If He wants you to proclaim His works in the streets,
If He wants you to clean the toilets all day, that’s all right,
Everything is alright.
We must say, ‘I belong to you.
You can do whatever you like’.
And this is our strength,
And this is the joy of the Lord.”

The attitude of Mother Teresa of Calcutta has to be the attitude of the young man who will give his total life to God. “We are at God’s disposal.”