Camillians in UERMMH

As part of the effort to reach out and be more effective and committed in our service to the sick, St. Camillus Scholasticate Community ‘sent’ John Paul and me to the University of the East Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Hospital(UERMMH).  We began our apostolate there in July 2008.

The hospital is a non-stock, non-profit, private institution, which started operating on January 10, 1959. Located on Aurora Boulevard, Quezon City, this hospital with a 307 bed-capacity aims to provide quality, holistic patient care in its pay and charity wards.  In order to respond to the spiritual needs of the patients, the hospital administration has put up a chapel with all its concomitant services.

We do our apostolate in collaboration with Fr. Sunny Abraham Padinjaredath, the chaplain, and the Pastoral Committee. We focus on the charity wards, where we frequent the medical, pediatric, EENT and surgery sections.

Most of the time during our visitation among the patients, we listen to the stories about their struggles, fears and anxieties.   We join them in their prayers for themselves, other patients, their family members and loved ones. The experiences of the sick people, indeed, challenge us and lead us to a deeper relationship with God.

Quite often, the doctors, nurses and patients get curious about us, not because they seldom see a chaplain but because we look probably out of the ordinary in our habits with the red cross. We hope that even through that external sign, we could send off bits of Camillian good news.

Just recently, we put up a tarpaulin image of St. Camillus in the chapel and initiated the prayer for the sick invoking his intercession. We expect that during the exam weeks, the medical students flock in the chapel to ask St. Camillus to pray for the success of their exams. We hope too that the prayer and the picture of St. Camillus inspire some young men to follow Christ as Camillians.