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By Nicole Seiferth
Last summer, parishioner Ralph Lowry visited a man incarcerated at Riker's Island several times. Ralph tells the story very matter-of-factly, "I went to see him and talk with him, reassure him and pray with him." Ralph is one of Trinity's Lay Eucharistic Ministers, whom the Rev. Mark Bozzuti-Jones, Trinity's priest for pastoral care, refers to as Trinity's "saints in every borough."
The Lay Eucharistic Ministers assist Mark and other members of the pastoral team in making sure that members of the Trinity community who can't come to church for whatever reason are cared for and receive the sacraments. The team worked with Mark for a month to learn about the responsibilities of pastoral care and to become licensed to administer the sacraments on behalf of Trinity.
"Many of the people we visit are older and have been coming to Trinity for many years. What we are doing is saying, ‘Now that you can't come to church, the Church will come to you.'"
"It's a call of service," said Chris Ballard, another member of the Lay Eucharistic Ministry team. When you visit someone, he said, "you reinforce the idea that they are the Body of Christ, even if they're physically unable to join the Body of Christ on Sunday."
When Mark made a pastoral visit to a hospital earlier this year, the parishioner he was there to see got three calls—all from members of the Trinity community.
"The constant thread I hear from the team is that people are happy to see them and feel loved by Trinity," Mark said. "To me, it's a powerful thing— that people are touched by how much Trinity cares for them."
"I go to bring comfort to someone else," Ralph said about his pastoral visits. "But I think I get as much out of it as they do. People have done so much to see that I get by, the least I can do is to give back to the community, to humanity."
Trinity's Lay Eucharist Ministers are Regina Jacobs, Adriane Paniagua, Chris Ballard, Kathy Bozzuti-Jones, Pearl Chin, Roslyn Hall, Ferina Moses, Luciana Sikula, Arthur Sikula, Mildred Chandler, Yvette Tsiropoulos, Gabriel Bonadie, Ryan Campbell, Deborah Hope, Eileen Hope, Ralph Lowry Jr., Joyce Mondesire, Dolores Osborne, Sr. Ann Whittaker, Sr. Gloria Shirley, and Sr. Promise Atelon.
Do you know of someone who is in need of a pastoral visit? Contact the Rev. Mark Bozzuti-Jones at mbozzuti-jones@trinitywallstreet.org or 212.602.0765.
Nicole Seiferth is assistant editor for website and parish publications.
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