Welcome
to the Servants of St. Francis. There are two groups of servants in this
ministry—those who visit residents in nursing homes and those who visit
parishioners from St. Francis who are hospitalized.
This group visits, prays
and shares the Eucharist with Catholic residents of nursing homes in
Grapevine (Autumn Leaves of Grapevine and Woodridge Convalescent Center)
and in Justin (Longmeadow Healthcare Center) every Sunday morning. To
serve, you must be a Eucharistic minister and have completed the Keeping
Children, Youth and Vulnerable Adults Safe Seminar—a mandatory
requirement of the Diocese for all volunteers.
When a Catholic resident is
admitted, the Activity Director of the nursing home calls the Servants
Ministry Contact Person to include the new resident in the list of
residents to be visited.
This group brings the Holy
Eucharist to the hospital. During their visit they try to include
prayer, hope, and joy into the person’s life. To serve, you must be a
Eucharistic minister and have completed the Keeping Children, Youth and
Vulnerable Adults Safe Seminar. The hospital is very careful about
safeguarding the confidentiality of its patients. Servants must be
discreet in observing this hospital policy. Opportunity to serve is
given on short notice.
When
a parishioner is admitted at the Baylor Grapevine Hospital, or other
area hospitals, the hospital or family of the patient contacts the
Servants’ Ministry Contact Person or calls the Parish Office Secretary
who then arranged for the patient to be visited. They get about a dozen
occasional requests a month to visit hospital patients.
Servants follow a
quarterly schedule and go by pair on every visit.
Quarterly schedule is
created two weeks before the turn of the next quarter and e-mailed
to everyone. Additional copies are available in the Servants
mailbox.
Before the quarterly
schedule is prepared, all servants are requested to submit the
Sundays unavailable to serve.
Each servant is
scheduled to serve at least twice every quarter.
Four to six servants
or two to three pairs serve every Sunday.
A servant who cannot
fulfill his/her schedule switches with another (new servant with
another new servant, active servant with another active servant).
If a servant is
unable to find a fellow servant to switch with, the Ministry Contact
Person (if available) will fill in.
During Advent and Lent Holy Mass is celebrated in each of the nursing
home facility. The Catholic residents may avail of the Sacrament of
Reconciliation before the celebration of the Eucharist and immediately
after the service they may also receive the Sacrament of the Anointing
of the Sick.
All
the residents regardless of church denomination are invited to
participate in the celebration.
The Servants Ministry is truly an enriching and special ministry to be
involved in. One becomes a part of a community where everyone’s
participation is important in making it run smoothly.
To build up our relationship with each other and
the residents we visit, we share our visitation experience through a
journal titled IN TOUCH.
As we get to know the residents we visit the better we are able to serve
them. IN TOUCH
is also a learning tool for new servants.
We invite you to join us every Sunday morning in visiting, praying, and
sharing the Eucharist with the sick and elderly. Often times, the sick
we visit minister to us more than we minister to them.