Taking the Blessed Sacrament to the sick

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I have been asked to take the Blessed Sacrament to Catholic patients (who request) @ our local VA hospital. All the literature I have is for a Communion Service. This will not be a Communion Service. Do any of you have a form you follow?
 
Do you mean you are looking for a shorter rite? when I was trained and mandated they said that I could abbreviate the communion service when I was communing to the sick. I can look up what I included in the rite if you like
 
If you have the official book associated with this, it lists multiple versions. One of which is supposed to be used when you are visiting a hospital, nursing home, etc. where you are visiting multiple patients.

It is very short. Only includes a few real short prayers, the “Our Father” and “This is the lamb of God…” prayer, receiving, and a short closing prayer.
 
If you are an EMHC taking the Blessed Sacrament on sick calls, you should have been furnished with the necessary book to do so. Did the parish not provide any training? :confused:
 
Chatter163 said:
If you are an EMHC taking the Blessed Sacrament on sick calls, you should have been furnished with the necessary book to do so. Did the parish not provide any training? :confused:
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I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t get the official book, when I started the ministry, the sister in charge of the ministry gave me a note card with the entire thing on it. It was a cut and paste from a photocopy of the book. It had all the important stuff on it. I have since purchased the book. It looks a lot better then taking in a tattered note-card.

I highly suggest getting training from someone at your church if you have not had it. There is a lot of information and situations that come up that involve both thinking on your feet and knowing all the appropriate church policies and your local parish policies.

Just a sample of important issues:
  1. Where/how do you get the Eucharist?
  2. Where/how do you return any hosts that may be left over?
  3. How do you know exactly who to visit? Is their a listing at the hospital or do you get the names from the Church?
All of these things vary, diocese to diocese, parish by parish, ministry by ministry (i.e. how you handle a nursing home may be different from how to handle a hospital vs how to handle a single person visit.)
 
Marauder said:
I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t get the official book, when I started the ministry, the sister in charge of the ministry gave me a note card with the entire thing on it. It was a cut and paste from a photocopy of the book. It had all the important stuff on it. I have since purchased the book. It looks a lot better then taking in a tattered note-card.

I highly suggest getting training from someone at your church if you have not had it. There is a lot of information and situations that come up that involve both thinking on your feet and knowing all the appropriate church policies and your local parish policies.

Just a sample of important issues:
  1. Where/how do you get the Eucharist?
  2. Where/how do you return any hosts that may be left over?
  3. How do you know exactly who to visit? Is their a listing at the hospital or do you get the names from the Church?
All of these things vary, diocese to diocese, parish by parish, ministry by ministry (i.e. how you handle a nursing home may be different from how to handle a hospital vs how to handle a single person visit.)
Click to expand...
I was in the hospital in June & I just want you (all of you) to know how much this service you provide is appreciated. I received the Eucharist EVERY DAY while I was there.(5 days). When I was moved to a “living community” for 5 more days of therapy. The EM.'s
didn’t come & I really missed them. (I understand though, as many of the patients there were permanent “guests”.
BTW. the hospital keeps a list of patients & their faiths. I assume that there is a contact person at the different parishes.
 
Per the chaplain @ this VA hospital only patients who ask for the Blessed Sacrament as he never suggests or offers this on his own.

I am not an EEM @ the parish. The priest who celebrated Mass @ the VA hospital 1x week retired and left the area. The parish secretary called me w/ this request.
Our priest is very detailed in his directives/instructions to EEM’s who assist @ Mass.
 
Marauder said:
If you have the official book associated with this, it lists multiple versions. One of which is supposed to be used when you are visiting a hospital, nursing home, etc. where you are visiting multiple patients.

It is very short. Only includes a few real short prayers, the “Our Father” and “This is the lamb of God…” prayer, receiving, and a short closing prayer.
Click to expand...
This is the form Iuse when visiting patients at a local nursing home. Each patient is visited individually. My parish also visits a retirements community. Those residents gather in one location and so it is possible to use the more complete Communion Service.
 
Jane_of_Arc said:
BTW. the hospital keeps a list of patients & their faiths. I assume that there is a contact person at the different parishes.
Click to expand...
This actually varies hospital to hospital. Due to HIPPA requirements in most US hospitals, different hospitals interpret how this applies to ministries like this. I have heard of some hospitals taking the extreme and only allowing people to visit patients that explicitly request it. They will provide the phone number of the nearest Catholic church to make the request. Others ask at admission whether they would like to opt in to visits. Luckily the hospital I worked with did as you said and kept a list of people’s faith and we would visit anyone that selected Catholic. We would get that list from security. Some departments within in the hospital had different requirements (i.e. the mental health ward, ICU, etc.) so you have to even know policies within the hospital.
 
My mom is elderly and cannot get to church any longer. I’m grateful that a woman in our parish visits her with the eucharist on a regular basis. Thank you, too, for providing this service to our veterans.
 
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