Members of the Diocese of Cleveland Sodality of Catholic Nurses gathered on Nov. 21 in the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist for a Mass of gratitude. Normally, the group attends a Mass during National Nurses Week in May, but the coronavirus pandemic and the suspension of public Masses precluded it this year.
Father Bill Bouhall, spiritual director at Borromeo Seminary and the group’s spiritual director, celebrated the Mass, which was on the feast of the presentation of Mary.
“We gather this Saturday afternoon to celebrate the presentation of our Blessed Mother and the service that you do,” he said to the nurses.
In the Gospel, Father Bouhall said Jesus asks who are his mother and his brothers. “Those who do the will of God,” Father answered. “Whenever you, as nurses, do so many things you are doing the will of the Father.” He said by serving as nurses, they are saying “yes” to God, much like Mary when she agreed to be the mother of Jesus.
“You’re saying, ‘Lord, I see you in this man on a stretcher, in this woman in a wheelchair, in someone who is so sick or someone who is so happy to go home from the hospital. You see the face of God in all of them,” he said.
“You follow the saints who came before us by being companions in this time of COVID. There you are in the trenches,” he added.
Father Bouhall said his sister is a nurse in Parma and frequently gets calls asking if she can come in early or stay late or work an extra day because they’re short-handed.
“We are blessed by all the nurses in the city, the county, the state, the country and the world who said ‘yes, I’ll do what the Father asked.’ They take care of those who can’t care for themselves. You answered the call,” he said.
“A nurse brings calm to the chaos, comfort to the suffering and hope when things seem hopeless. We thank you for saying ‘yes’ and for your compassion,” he added.
Blessed Hanna Chrzanowska, a Polish lay Catholic nurse, is the group’s patron. She made nursing a vocation and worked with St. Pope John Paul II when he was a bishop and cardinal in their native Poland.
“My job is not only my profession but also my vocation. I will comprehend this vocation if I enter into and make my own Christ’s words, ‘I did not come to be served but to serve,” Chrzanowska said.
Born in 1902 in Poland, Chrzanowska died in 1973. She worked as a nurse and a nursing educator and is credited with beginning parish nursing in her parish after she retired.
In 1995, nurses from the Catholic Association of Nurses and Midwives submitted a request to Cardinal Franciszek Macharski to open Hanna’s canonization cause. The cardinal, who once referred to Blessed Hanna as the conscience of the nursing profession, agreed and her cause was opened formally on Nov. 3, 1998. It was the first time that a professional group petitioned the Church to canonize one of its members. On July 7, 2017, Pope Francis declared that a miracle attributed to the Venerable Servant of God had prepared the way for her beatification.
Her beatification ceremony took place on April 28, 2018, at the Sanctuary of the Divine Mercy in Łagiewniki, Poland.
After realizing there was not a group for Catholic nurses in the diocese, Clarice DeJesus, a member of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in Wickliffe, decided to form one in 2019. She serves as president of the fledging group. Unfortunately, she was unable to attend the Mass.
Jaclene Zauszniewski, a St. Thomas More parishioner, is liaison to the spiritual director. She served as lector at the liturgy.
For more information on the sodality, email cnsofcle@gmail.com, jaclene2000@yahoo.com or call 440-479-4996. The sodality is affiliated with the National Association of Catholic Nurses.