Seminarian humbled by chaplain experience

JEAN GONZALEZ | FLORIDA CATHOLIC STAFF

ORLANDO | For 11 weeks, he was known as “Pastor Jim,” and hearing that moniker as he walked through Baptist Hospital in Pensacola humbled seminarian Jim Grebe every time.

As summer comes to a close, children and youths aren’t the only people preparing to go back to school. Seminarians across the state return to the seminary after spending their summers in a variety of locations. A “what I did this summer” essay for these young men might include serving, teaching and preaching at a parish, learning a new language through an immersion program, or experiencing life and mission work in a Third World country, as Orlando seminarian Dominic Buckley did.

For Grebe, a 24-year-old graduate of Florida State University who attends St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach, summer meant spending days and sometimes nights at Baptist Hospital. The third-year theology student and seminarian for the Pensacola-Tallahassee Diocese worked on his clinical pastoral education credits as he served as a chaplain for five days a week at the hospital. Grebe worked from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. serving patients, families and hospital staffers as an ear for listening or a heart for praying. Each chaplain on duty takes care of one of eight units of the hospital, such as the cardiac unit, pediatrics, etc. Chaplains at the hospital are also required to spend one night every five days at the hospital to be on call. Sometimes, Grebe would put in 50 to 60 hours a week.

Before he went into the program, other seminarians and supporters told Grebe the chaplainship would be both emotionally and psychologically demanding. Grebe said he had never personally suffered the loss of a loved one to an illness, so he felt humbled to be in the presence of families encountering such a situation. He added that many times there can be a sense of spiritual urgency when families experience life-changing moments.

“You have to look at who you are, and be able to minister to people,” Grebe said. “I’m just encouraged that they want to turn to God in their moments of need. That sometimes those moments of need are when people turn to God more seriously than they have before. Questions of life and death, questions of destiny, start to become more urgent in their hearts. They pay more attention to these questions of ultimate meaning and destiny. I’m really glad to be there in the midst of them asking those questions.”

Staffers might send chaplains a referral to see a patient. The chaplain is called on anytime there is a death, trauma or code, such as a cardiac respiratory arrest, anywhere in the hospital. When Grebe met patients and their family, they might not have known he was Catholic. He would introduce himself as the chaplain and simply listen to their needs. On one of his first days, Grebe met with a family who lost their mother.

“The main thing I have discovered is what people want to talk about and what is in their heart has little to do with what they are doing in the hospital,” Grebe said. “It is definitely humbling. I don’t know if I’ve done anything for anyone this summer, but I know that Christ has done so much for me to see so much in the face of tragedy. Beggars before the mystery of God.”

A different dynamic of his chaplainship has been serving staff members. Grebe praised the hospital because patient care is a team effort, and he felt the chaplains were always welcomed as an important part of that effort. Nurses have been a constant source of help and support for Grebe. He regarded the staffers as very prayerful people who face everyday issues that might weigh heavily on their hearts.

“They’re not so much grieving in the ways (patients and their families) are,” Grebe said. “They are overwhelmed by the amount of work, by the intensity of the work, the long hours of work. I can be helpful when they feel out of energy and ideas to have someone there to listen.”
Msgr. Slade Crawford, diocesan director of seminarians for Pensacola-Tallahassee, said seminarians gain a lot of real world experience during their summers. While the education they receive at seminary is critical, it is also important for them to be prepared for the realities they will face as priests. He said those who work at the hospital, as Grebe did, will help them build a feeling of solidarity among those who are suffering.

“It gets them in touch with different points of reality,” Msgr. Crawford said. “They experience those who are suffering and those who are dying. And working at Baptist Hospital allows them to broaden their horizons to effectively work with people of different faith traditions, and to do so with kindness and respect.”

The experience also helps the seminarians mature, Msgr. Crawford said. Working as a chaplain can be a “real eye opener.”
“You are talking about a hospital full of broken, hurt, dying people, and it gives the tone of the ministry of the sick, which is an important part of their work as priests,” Msgr. Crawford said.

While helping young men discern a life of priestly service, Msgr. Crawford said experiences such as working in a vacation Bible program or working at a hospital or serving the less fortunate at shelter, while keeping a faithful prayer routine, brings the ministry to life.
“One young man in discernment told me, ‘I’m so amazed how ordinary (your) life is. It’s about learning how to do ordinary things extraordinarily well.’ And I thought, ‘Yes. That is it,’” Msgr. Crawford said. “ It is so important to integrate these men into the diocese — hands-on, in-the-flesh involvement. And to keep them focusing deeper and deeper in pathway of prayer.”