HEALING WONDER
CHAPLAIN MARGARET GIVES HOPE TO THE DYING AND THEIR FAMILIES AT MATER.
A BALLYCULLANE woman who is a hospital chaplain wil be featured on a new TV series starting on RTE One featuring this Thursday.
Margaret Sleator from Ballycullane features in a three part series called Ministry of Hope, the first of which airs on Thursday at 10.15 p.m. For over a year the RTE cameras have followed three chaplains working in the Mater Hospital, Shelton Abbey Open Prison and Dublin City University.
Originally from Ballycullane, Margaret was one of the first non-ordained chaplains working in the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital when she started there 13 years ago. Every day, more than 600 patients receive 21st century medical treatment in the Mater Hospital. But, alongside that physical care, their spiritual and emotional needs are also catered for by Margaret Sleator and the other chaplains.
Priests from the medical Order of St Camillus are available 24/7 for last rites and sacraments of the sick, but Margaret and the other chaplains are there to serve people of all faiths and none, in any way they can, but only if people want them to. ‘I always try to bring reassurance, hope, silence, a little prayer if they want,’ says Margaret. ‘I never initiate prayer. I would wait for them to say it.’
In the first episode, the cameras follow Margaret as she supports Sean O’Keeffe from Doneraile, Co Cork, whose wife is critically ill in the Intensive Care Unit with a life threatening auto-immune disease.
The prognosis from the medical team is not good, but Sean and his son, Jack, are hoping and praying for a miracle. Chaplain Margaret is there to support the family, but she says, ‘I wouldn’t ever pull out the Miracle Prayer, because I am afraid that you could be offering too much hope when there isn’t any.’
More than 800 people die in the Mater Hospital every year and Margaret and the other chaplains are often there to help people face death. ‘I always had a fascination with death,’ she says, ‘And just being there for somebody, especially where they don’t have any family members to hold their hand. That would be the biggest privilege. To be with them before they take their last breath.’
Another patient, Jim Kelly, from Ballymore in Westmeath, who has been in the Cardio-thoracic ward for more than two months always looks forward to Margaret’s visit: ‘When Margaret comes in, it gives me a sense of being, to see how strong she is. And she gives hope, by only walking into the room. She keeps me from getting into the state of depression maybe.’
It’s quite a calling, reaching out to strangers in their time of greatest need and vulnerability, and Margaret is careful not to let her own emotions overwhelm her in the many difficult situations she faces. Even so, she admits there are times when her ever-present mascara runs, when she slips out to shed a few private tears after particularly difficult encounters.