Religious vocation is a mystery of love between God who calls and a human being who answers: “It is not you who have chosen me, but I who have chosen you and ordained you to go forth and bear fruit” (John 15,16). 

I believe that the whole life of the Hospitaller Order is the grace of God, who acts not only in me but also in my co-worker who has joined us in our mission through his profession.

In these recent years I have been living my pastoral mission in working with patients in terminal stages, in emotional imbalance, and with mental alterations.  I feel that accompanying these people is not just a technique or a virtue; it is an art and a new paradigm in human relations.  I feel sure that love is the natural ethic of this sacred activity. 

I can give two examples of this love, present in the work of our brothers and co-workers; a palpable presence of Saint John of God and his wish to care for the sick in his own special way:

• Compassion, as the capacity to put oneself in the place of the other, and feel with him:  This makes it possible for the patient to understand that he is not alone in his pain; that there is somebody there to help him and to lift him up.

• Closeness and contact with the other: touching him reassures him that he belongs to our humanity.  Sickness is often a sign that the patient wishes to communicate; to speak and be listened to.  He wants to find a meaning in his sickness.  That is why we need these symbolic gestures, full of affection.

Recovery of health goes hand in hand with restoring confidence in life to the patient; confidence in his inner energies, both physical, psychic, and spiritual.  These act as veritable medicines. 

I believe that health care is much more of an art than a technical matter; in the health care professional it presupposes a consistency of life, a spirituality and a vision that reaches far beyond life and death.  The tragedy of life is not death; it is that which we allow to die within ourselves while we are alive: our values of service.