CHAPTER XXXV
THE MINISTERING ANGELS
The nurses—“sisters” we called them—throughout all the base hospitals were most attentive to the wounded, without the slightest display of any maudlin sympathy; but they worked hard and long and one never heard the least complaint from their lips. It was a common occurrence at No. 7 to see a nurse being ordered away for a complete rest, made necessary by the terrific strain of her work.
The Catholic nurses were, on the whole, very faithful in the practice of their religious duties, many being weekly communicants. To communicate daily was not practicable for many, as they were on duty during morning Mass. Often I have seen a nurse come with five or six of her patients to Holy Communion: some back-sliders that she had rounded up.
Often, while giving Holy Communion to a soldier in the ward of a non-Catholic nurse, I had been annoyed by the lack of any special preparations on the part of the sister for the administration of the Sacrament. But one morning I found a spotlessly white cloth spread over the small locker, a clean graduate glass of fresh water and a spoon. There was also on the locker a folded white towel for the lad to hold when receiving Holy Communion.
It pleased me very much to see such care taken to prepare for the coming of Jesus, and it was with deep gratitude that I went to thank the sister in charge, after I had given the lad Holy Communion.
“Sister,” I said, “how did you know how to prepare everything so well? It was so clean, and everything necessary was there.”
The good little sister seemed pleased that I had even noticed the preparations. Then she said: “Well, Padre, I knew just what was needed for I studied nursing in a Catholic hospital.”
As I went out of the ward the thought struck me how fine it would be if only all the non-Catholic sisters would prepare for the Saviour’s coming as had their sister nurse, and as I thought I formed a little plan.
The following day I was notified by a non-Catholic sister to bring Communion to a boy in her ward; and there and then I tried out my plan. “Sister,” I said, “yesterday morning I was called to Sister ——’s ward to administer one of my lads who is dangerously ill, and I was very much surprised to find the table arranged as if it had been done by an R. C. Sister.”
“How did she have it arranged, Padre?” she asked. Then I told her just how things had been prepared. The following morning when I brought the “Bread of the Strong” to the poor wounded lad, I found, as on the previous day, everything spotlessly arranged for the visit of the Guest.
After that, whenever a non-Catholic sister told me that a Catholic lad had need of my ministrations in her ward, I told her how well the last sister had prepared locker, etc., and invariably the following morning, when I went in silence to the bedside, I found that all things had been made ready.