By Sister Judy Morasci
My ministry is vice president of mission integration for Mercy Hospital in Bakersfield, California. I orient employees, physicians and volunteers, helping them understand the mission and values of Dignity Health (one of the largest health systems in the nation founded by the Sisters of Mercy). Through my work, they realize how they can integrate our mission into their role and the work environment. Employees from a variety of religious and cultural backgrounds are here to serve the patient. The mission gives them a sense of the meaning and purpose of their work.
I also facilitate the human kindness retreats for staff. The retreat theme is that the core of our mission is reaching out with human kindness to suffering patients and their families.
I am also in charge of spiritual care and the hospital auxiliary, and I serve on the board committee for community outreach. My whole purpose is to instill a sense of the legacy of Catherine McAuley, founder of the Sisters of Mercy, and Baptist Russell, founder of St. Mary’s Hospital—the first Catholic hospital on the west coast. We continue that legacy begun here in 1910 when the hospital was founded.
I find Mercy in the service we provide; in the hands of Mercy; in our care for the sick, the poor and one another. Mercy is in the sense of hospitality in our hospitals. I am here to express Mercy through a compassionate, listening presence, by being there for people and by being a Sister of Mercy.