{"id":5196,"date":"2020-05-18T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-18T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/?p=5196"},"modified":"2020-05-17T20:28:23","modified_gmt":"2020-05-18T00:28:23","slug":"the-miracle-is-to-let-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/the-miracle-is-to-let-go\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;The Miracle Is To Let Go!&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<iframe title=\"&quot;The Miracle Is To Let Go!&quot; 5\/17\/20\" height=\"122\" width=\"100%\" style=\"border: none;\" scrolling=\"no\" data-name=\"pb-iframe-player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.podbean.com\/media\/player\/zq2v3-dcaaef?from=yiiadmin&#038;download=1&#038;version=1&#038;skin=1&#038;btn-skin=107&#038;auto=0&#038;share=1&#038;fonts=Helvetica&#038;download=1&#038;rtl=0&#038;pbad=1\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>At New York\u2019s Bellevue Hospital, Brother Robert Bathe watches over those who are dying. He remarks:&nbsp;&nbsp;<em>\u201cThe miracle is to let go.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>When you read this story, you will discover one of the multitude of reasons why the Church, its ministers and its believers, have been present in the world for 2000 years, and why the Church is so very much alive and still flourishing today!!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>NEW YORK \u2014 The morning after he turned 52 last month, Brother Robert Bathe emerged from the Millennium Hotel on West 44th Street. He ambled half a block into Times Square and reflected on the emptiness. A street cleaner&#8217;s whoosh broke the silence.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dressed in a brown robe, the traditional garb of his Carmelite order, Bathe began his daily walk down Broadway. At 28th Street, he hooked left and continued to Bellevue Hospital, where he is a Roman Catholic chaplain and bereavement coordinator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>\u201cWelcome to ground zero,\u201d he said before a nurse trained a thermometer gun on his forehead and scanned for a reading.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It read 98.6. The nurse nodded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u201cNormally,\u201d he said, \u201cthe family is there with me bedside at death, and when we say the Our Father it is very emotional. Now I stare at a person that is taking their last breaths. I\u2019m with a doctor and a couple of nurses. We\u2019re saying goodbye.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bathe is the friar on the front line of the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/health\/2020\/02\/28\/what-you-need-know-about-coronavirus\/?tid=lk_inline_manual_10&amp;itid=lk_inline_manual_10\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">coronavirus<\/a>&nbsp;pandemic. A native Tennessean who was a soil scientist before entering religious life at age 27, his Southern accent is the first voice many patients\u2019 family members hear from the city\u2019s oldest hospital when he calls to inquire about special needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Each morning, he reviews death logs. He then walks through the emergency department and intensive care unit, where he stands behind glass and cues up music on the smartphone he keeps in his pocket. \u201cBridge Over Troubled Water\u201d is a favorite selection. On Funky Fridays, as he calls them, Bathe mixes Benedictine chants with James Brown. If patients are awake, he flexes his biceps or pumps a fist \u2014 encouragement to stay strong. He takes precautions when praying over the intubated, slipping on an N95 mask and face shield. In all, he ministers to more than 25 patients daily.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>&nbsp;\u201cMusic gives a little more sense of sacredness so I don\u2019t get distracted by nurses and doctors screaming,\u201d he said. \u201cI am focused on that patient, looking at that face. I know who that person is, imagine what it is like for them to be alive.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His pager pulses with death updates. It is programmed to receive alerts for cardiac emergencies, traumas and airway issues. Whenever a coronavirus patient on a ventilator needs attention, it comes across his screen twice. When a nurse who worked in the neonatal ICU died of covid-19 recently, Mary Ann Tsourounakis, Bellevue\u2019s senior associate director of maternal child health, called pastoral care for help. A group of nurses grieved. First to arrive was Bathe, who led them in prayer in a small hallway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cOne of the most healing and loving I\u2019ve heard,\u201d Tsourounakis said. \u201cPeople think it has to be a big production. Sometimes those moments are the moments.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The virus continues to paralyze the city and stretch the limits of its hospital system. Confirmed cases have surpassed 185,000 and more than 20,316 deaths had been recorded, according to the New York City Health Department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Bathe\u2019s path to New York began in Knoxville, Tenn. He grew up around his grandfather\u2019s cattle farm, went on frequent hikes as an Eagle Scout and eyed a career as a forest ranger while a teenager. His mother, Linda, worked at the University of Tennessee, and she consulted with faculty members about her son\u2019s future in forestry. Prospects were slim, and alternate paths \u2014 archaeology or agriculture \u2014 were suggested.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He didn\u2019t see himself traveling to Egypt to unearth tombs, so he dug into agricultural studies and toiled with botany and geology as well. Following graduation, he worked for the Buncombe County environmental health agency in North Carolina. Hired to protect groundwater, his release was to drop a line in honey holes for catfish, pitch a tent and listen to bluegrass songs after dark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>One day, Bathe was sent to meet a man named Robert Warren to evaluate his soil so he could build a house. When Bathe arrived, he saw Warren slumped over in his truck. As Bathe approached, he said, Warren grabbed his hand and asked, \u201cWould you pray with me?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>They recited the Lord\u2019s Prayer, he said. Moments later, he was dead, Bathe recalled. Bathe accompanied him to the hospital and attended the memorial service and funeral.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He believes the experience, which he&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/vocationnetwork.org\/en\/articles\/show\/675-mountaintop-encounter-crystallizes-my-vocation\">wrote about for the Vision Vocation Network<\/a>&nbsp;in 2003, led him to his true calling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bathe joined the Carmelites soon after, and in 1997 was assigned to Our Lady of the Scapular and St. Stephen\u2019s Church, two blocks from Bellevue. Lessons followed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>One day, he said, a woman fell from her window in a neighboring building and through the church roof. Bathe was sent up to investigate.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>\u201cFirst dead body I ever smelled,\u201d he says. \u201cLife is tender.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Transfers are part of the friar life. He taught in Boca Raton, Fla., and served as the vocation director from Maine to Miami before returning to Manhattan two and a half years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>In ordinary times, Bathe receives a monthly allowance of $250, lives in the St. Eliseus Priory in Harrison, N.J., and rides the PATH train. He fell ill in January, experienced the chills, registered a temperature of 101 and lost weight. He believed it was pneumonia then and self-isolated, using a back stairwell to his room. His brothers left meals outside his door, and he returned to Bellevue after convalescing. He has yet to be tested for covid-19.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since March 30, the hospital has facilitated his participation in a program that provides free or discounted rooms for front-line workers, first at a Comfort Inn on the west side of Manhattan and now at the Millennium, to limit his commute. Along the route to work, his bald head, eager gait and hearty laugh are known to mendicants and administrators alike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He carries on the tradition of the Carmelites, who have ministered at Bellevue since the 1800s, through periodic epidemics, saying Masses from the psychiatric ward to the prison unit. Colleagues include a new rabbi and a 20-year-old imam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>When a Catholic dies, he performs the commendation of the dead, a seven-minute service. His responsibilities range from distributing Communion to finding prayer books for patients across faiths to leading memorial services for staff. He is \u201cstaunchly against\u201d virtual bereavement, which has become common amid the pandemic, insisting on providing a physical presence.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>\u201cPeople are looking for a miracle when the miracle is to let go,\u201d he said. \u201cCall me too practical, but I don\u2019t pray they leap out of the grave like Lazarus. I think we\u2019re meant for better. We\u2019re meant for God.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Hospital staffers are processing what has happened since the pandemic first gripped New York, and they\u2019re bracing for a potential second wave. Since Lorna Breen, medical director for the emergency department at NewYork-Presbyterian Allen Hospital,<\/em><em>&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/nation\/2020\/04\/28\/nyc-doctor-lorna-breen-coronavirus\/?tid=lk_inline_manual_44&amp;itid=lk_inline_manual_44\"><em>died by suicide last month<\/em><\/a><em>, Bellevue has increased its support services for employees. Questions about closure come from all mourners.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>\u201cFamilies ask, \u2018Are we going to be able to have our loved one go to Mexico?\u2019\u2009<\/em><\/strong><strong><em>\u201d Bathe said. \u201cHow are we going to do the next step, to bury our loved ones?\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On a recent Sunday, Bathe stepped outside for a breather in what some people call Bedpan Alley, the east side neighborhood that includes hospitals and a shelter on First Avenue. He checked on a homeless woman who sits in a chair facing Bellevue each day, rubbing his thumb against hers as she slept. A shoeless man was prone on the sidewalk. Bathe inquired about a can collector\u2019s economic concerns. Business was slow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<strong><em>\u201cAre you a priest?\u201d a woman on a bench asked Bathe.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>\u201cNo, ma\u2019am,\u201d Bathe said. \u201cI\u2019m a friar.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She introduced herself as Shonda. She was anxious about a meeting with her manager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>\u201cYou want to say a prayer for me?\u201d she said.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>\u201cPut the phone down,\u201d he said.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bathe closed his eyes and prayed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>\u201cBreathe,\u201d he said.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cI\u2019m going to breathe,\u201d she said.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>As he walked back to the hospital, his pager went off. \u201cCardiac Arrest,\u201d it read, \u201c10 West 36.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u201cSomebody\u2019s dying,\u201d he said.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By&nbsp;<strong>Kevin Armstrong<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>May 14, 2020&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<strong>THE WASHINGTON POST<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What touched you the most in reading this story about Brother Bathe? What makes you say that?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At New York\u2019s Bellevue Hospital, Brother Robert Bathe watches over those who are dying. He remarks:&nbsp;&nbsp;\u201cThe miracle is to let go.\u201d When you read this story, you will discover one of the multitude of reasons why the Church, its ministers and its believers, have been present in the world for 2000 years, and why the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5197,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"qubely_global_settings":"true","qubely_interactions":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"qubely_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Brother-Bathe.png",147,187,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Brother-Bathe.png",147,187,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Brother-Bathe.png",147,187,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Brother-Bathe-147x150.png",147,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Brother-Bathe.png",147,187,false],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Brother-Bathe.png",147,187,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Brother-Bathe.png",147,187,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Brother-Bathe.png",147,187,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Brother-Bathe.png",147,187,false],"ocean-thumb-m":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Brother-Bathe.png",147,187,false],"ocean-thumb-ml":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Brother-Bathe.png",147,187,false],"ocean-thumb-l":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Brother-Bathe.png",147,187,false],"qubely_landscape":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Brother-Bathe.png",147,187,false],"qubely_portrait":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Brother-Bathe.png",147,187,false],"qubely_thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Brother-Bathe-140x100.png",140,100,true],"rpwe-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Brother-Bathe-45x45.png",45,45,true]},"qubely_author":{"display_name":"Medard Laz","author_link":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/author\/medlaz\/"},"qubely_comment":0,"qubely_category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/category\/daily-treats\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Daily Treats<\/a>","qubely_excerpt":"At New York\u2019s Bellevue Hospital, Brother Robert Bathe watches over those who are dying. He remarks:&nbsp;&nbsp;\u201cThe miracle is to let go.\u201d When you read this story, you will discover one of the multitude of reasons why the Church, its ministers and its believers, have been present in the world for 2000 years, and why the&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5196"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5196\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}