Care Center and Eucharistic Ministry to Home Bound

Are you interested in becoming a visitor to those homebound and in care centers?

Over 25 parishioners regularly visit local care centers in our area, including Friendship Village, Flagstone, The Waters, Summit Place, Dungarvin Homes, The Lodge, Eden Prairie Senior, Prairie Bluffs, and Brookdale Eden Prairie. These shared ministers pray and visit with residents, bring Communion, push residents in wheelchairs to Communion services and Mass, and offer other assistance. Other shared ministers bring Communion and prayer as requested to parishioners confined to their homes.  We have a strong group of care ministers, but more help is always needed.

Contact Joan Miltenberger, Director of Care and Support Ministry, 952-405-7211, to find out how you can help, where help is needed, and what might best fit your schedule. Training specific to each care center is provided.

Would you like someone to visit you?

Contact Joan Miltenberger, Director of Care and Support Ministry, 952-405-7211, to discuss your situation.

What then is care? The word ‘care’ finds its origin in the word “kara” which means: to lament, to mourn, to participate in suffering, to share in pain. To care is to cry out with those who are ill, confused, lonely, isolated and forgotten, and to recognize their pains in our own heart. To care is to enter into the world of those who are only touched by hostile hands, to listen attentively to those whose words are only heard by greedy ears and to speak gently with those who are used to harsh orders and impatient requests. To care is to be present to those who suffer and to stay present even when nothing can be done to change their situation. To care is to be compassionate and so to form a community of people honestly facing the painful reality of our finite existence. To care is the most human gesture, in which the courageous confession of our common brokenness does not lead to paralysis but to community.

–From Henri Nouwen in Care and the Elderly