VIRIDITAS: SOUL GREENING
Interviewed by Sister Malia Dominica Wong, OP
Hawaii Catholic Herald
Once, I remember as I made my rounds at St. Francis Hospital West, a patient getting ready for surgery said to me, “Sister, you don’t have to pray over me, I am an atheist.” I replied, “That’s all right.” We then started to talk. After we finished conversing, he asked, “Sister, can you bless me?” In return, I said, “You can bless me too.”
Since the year 2006, I have been involved in the (hospital) ministry of Spiritual Services. In my work I meet and greet people, offering spiritual company and prayer. Like St. Marianne Cope’s work with those most in need, my service reaches beyond religious denomination. There was once a Buddhist in the hospital who saw me and said, “Sister, come in.” After he passed away, the family confided, “Sister, we are not Catholic. But can you say a prayer for our dad?”
It is common when I visit patients, for them to ask me where I am from. I was born in Waialua on the North Shore. Next, they often inquire, “What church did you go to?” I have to laugh then because I never went to church. My mother and elder brother were Catholic. My dad and the rest of us were Protestant. It was not until I attended grade school at St. Theresa in Kapalama that I became a Catholic. And it wasn’t until my senior year at St. Francis High School, that a sister asked me, “Did you ever think of becoming a nun?” I went home and said, “Mom, guess what? Sister Bernice said, ‘You goin’ be one nun.’” That year seven of us left for Syracuse beginning my journey to wherever God leads.
In my present work, I spend Mondays and Wednesdays splitting half days between St. Francis Hospice in Nuuanu and the St. Francis Intergenerational Center in Ewa Villages. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I greet people at St. Francis Villas in Liliha at the front desk as well as make my rounds on the floors offering patients Holy Communion, a prayer, or just a listening ear. On Fridays, I help at the Franciscan Adult Day Care Center in Manoa where I facilitate a Communion service. There is one senior who likes to ask, “Sister, sister! When are we going to sing ‘Amazing Grace’?” Recently I said, “We sang that last week. Today we will sing ‘How Great Thou Art.’” The staff and others playfully began calling me “Sister Amazing Grace.”
The hardest part of my ministry is when I am called to the emergency room. It is especially difficult when the family comes in and their loved one is about to die. Although I do call on God and the Holy Spirit to give me the right words to say, it is still very hard to utter anything. But just being present there is important. After a while, they usually ask “Sister, can you say a prayer?” So many times I get choked up being with them. However, by my simple presence I know I am bringing the presence of the Lord to them. God’s grace is really an amazing grace.
Sister Jovita Agustin is a Sister of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities, 57 years professed. After 35-plus years in education, she now works with St. Francis Healthcare Systems. She lives at St. Francis Convent in Manoa.