The impact of the prayer group on Covid patients and how they responded with prayer

Da Paolo Tessione - February 19, 2021

Dr. Borik shared several stories, explaining that the regular prayer meetings had a profound effect on the emotional well-being of the participants. One of the centre's long-term residents, Margaret, was reportedly a first cousin of Archbishop Fulton Sheen. Margaret proudly displayed a photo of Sheen signed, simply, "Fulty". She had been so upset that she could not listen to Mass, celebrate the Eucharist, gather for prayer. It was Margaret's reaction that acted as a catalyst, inspiring Dr. Borik to start the prayer group.

Another patient, Michelle, was not Catholic but she learned to pray the Rosary in the group. “Being in this era of COVID limits us,” Michelle said in a video, “but it doesn't limit our spirit and it doesn't limit our beliefs… Being in Oasis has increased my faith, it has increased my love, it has increased my my happiness. Michelle believed her accident in February 2020 and the resulting injuries were a blessing, as she found her way to prayer meetings at Oasis, grew in faith, and gained spiritual insights through Dr. Borik's ministry. Another patient reported being divorced almost 50 years ago and felt estranged from the Church as a result. When he heard that there was a rosary group at the Oasis, he decided to join. “It was a pleasure to have something like that to come back to,” he said. "I remembered everything I was taught, from my first communion until today". He considered it a blessing to have been included in the Rosary group and hoped it could be a blessing for other people as well.

For patients in long-term care centers, daily life during the pandemic can be lonely and difficult. Long-term care facilities - including qualified nursing facilities and assisted living facilities - have strictly limited visits to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 among residents whose age and condition make them particularly vulnerable to the disease. In late January or February 2020, the coronavirus necessitated a lockdown of the Oasis Pavilion nursing and rehabilitation center in Casa Grande, Arizona. Since that time, family members have not been able to visit their institutionalized loved ones.

Volunteers are not admitted to the center, nor can a priest celebrate mass for Catholic patients. , Dr. Anne Borik, medical director of the Oasis Center, noted that many of her patients suffered from depression and anxiety. Confined to their rooms day after day, without the comfort of family and friends, they were desolate and abandoned. As a Catholic physician, Dr. Borik has a passion for prayer and spirituality as an integral part of health care. “I really think there is a need for it,” he said. “When we pray with our patients, it is important! He hears us! "

Although the centre's disease prevention policies prohibited visits by chaplains or priests, Dr. Borik had full access to residents. Borik devised a plan to help avoid the anxiety that accompanied hours, days and even weeks of isolation: he invited residents to attend a weekly rosary in the centre's activity room. Borik expected Catholic residents to be interested; but with no other activities in the centre's calendar, people of other faiths (or no faiths) soon joined. "There was only standing room," said Dr. Borik, explaining that the large room was filled with wheelchair patients separated from each other by several feet. Soon there were 25 or 30 people joining in prayer every week. Under Dr. Borik's leadership, the group began accepting prayer requests. Many of the patients, Borik said, prayed not for themselves but for other family members. The morale at the center was greatly improved; and the administrator of the center told Dr. Borik that the topic had come up at a meeting of the Resident Council and that everyone was talking about the Rosary!

When a member of the kitchen staff contracted the virus but remained asymptomatic, she went to work. When news of the employee's illness came to light, the center was forced to close again and confine the residents to their rooms. Dr. Borik, however, was not prepared to simply end the weekly prayer meeting. "We had to close the business again," said Borik, "so we decided to provide small MP3 players to everyone personally." The patients were used to Dr. Borik's voice, so he recorded the rosary for them. "So, walking through the corridors at Christmas," Borik smiled, "you would hear the patients playing the rosary in their rooms."

The impact of the prayer group on patients Dr. Borik shared several stories, explaining that the regular prayer meetings had a profound effect on the emotional well-being of the participants. One of the centre's long-term residents, Margaret, was reportedly a first cousin of Archbishop Fulton Sheen. Margaret proudly displayed a photo of Sheen signed, simply, "Fulty". She had been so upset that she could not listen to Mass, celebrate the Eucharist, gather for prayer. It was Margaret's reaction that acted as a catalyst, inspiring Dr. Borik to start the prayer group.