Easter Sunday

Happy Easter everyone!  It was a wonderful day, absolutely gorgeous and sunny in southern VA.  The day started out with a beautiful Easter service at Osborne in Eden, NC followed by a delicious breakfast with family.

Around 12 noon the phone rang and it was a hospice emergency.  Can I find a Catholic priest to go to the hospital on Easter Sunday to perform the Anointing of the Sick?  Hmmmmm....it was a mission, but I was up for the challenge.

First, I called the church.  No answer.  Then I called the rectory.  No answer.  I kept calling for about 30-45 minutes.  I discovered that there was a service at 11:30am and I figured it would be over by about 12:30pm and perhaps I'd ben lucky enough to catch the priest before he headed out for Easter dinners with his parishioners.  I was getting nervous.

I grabbed my Bible and headed out to the hospital.  If worse came to worse, I would pray for God to work through me.  I wasn't going to actually pretend to be a priest or pull Olive Oil out of my pantry and pretend like it was anointed, but I was armed with the proper prayers and was willing to speak them to the best of my ability.

As I was driving to the hospital I went by the Catholic church and noticed that the 11:30 mass was letting out.  Praise God for long Easter services!!!!!  I whipped a U-ey and pulled into the nearest spot, hopped out of the car and pushed my way through the crowds piling out of Sacred Heart.

There was a line of parishioners waiting to greet the priest and wish him a happy Easter.  I thought for a minute that actually getting in the line and asking this priest who had never met me and perhaps never met the dying woman at the hospital, might put him in a position that he couldn't say no.  PERFECT!!

I slipped into the line and waited my turn.  "Hello, Father.  My name is Lisa Marie, I'm a hospice nurse. There is a woman in the hospital, just a few blocks away.  She's dying, Father.  She needs the Anointing of the Sick.  Will you please come with me?"

"Of course.  What is her name and what room is she in?" the priest answered.

Score!!!!!!!  Approximately 15 minutes later he met me at in the patients room and granted this dying woman's wish, to be absolved of her sins, receive Holy Communion, and her Last Rites.

Easter does not get any better than that.  Jesus Christ is risen today!