When life begins to fall apart, people often begin looking for God. Illness, injury, and the proximity of death tend to strip away our illusions of control. For many who are hospitalized — especially those facing the end of life — the heart opens in ways it may not have in decades. This vulnerability becomes holy ground, a final opportunity for grace to break through.
 

During this Jubilee Year of Hope, the Church calls for all of us to be “tangible signs of hope for those of our brothers and sisters who experience hardships of any kind” (Spes Non Confundit, 10). Finding reasons for hope and sharing that hope with others is part of our vocation as Christians. Perhaps one of the greatest areas where the hope of Jesus Christ is needed here in the United States is mental health.

God is at work. Sometimes this it is clearer than at other times. These weeks of the Easter Season, within the Jubilee Year of Hope, he has been working through an incredibly rare event in the life of the Church: the death of a pope and the election of his successor. Living and working in Rome, very close to the action, has been the experience of a lifetime and a testimony of grace, which is always difficult to describe. But it’s worth trying.

Several times each month, a “No One Dies Alone” (NODA) alert reaches approximately 35 compassionate volunteers across the Pikes Peak region. Typically initiated by a perceptive nurse who recognizes that a patient will soon die without family or friends present, the alert prompts contact with the hospital chaplain and sets in motion a coordinated vigil. Led by a NODA coordinator, this vigil attempts a continuous volunteer presence, offering a caring human connection as a life transitions.

COLORADO SPRINGS. At 2 a.m. on April 21, Stacy Paris — hours away from leaving for Italy with 24 teens and 16 other adults to witness the canonization of Blessed Carlo Acutis scheduled for April 27 — received a phone call from her daughter letting her know that Pope Francis had died. Although the news came as a surprise, it quickly became clear to Paris that the group should follow through on their original travel plans, she said.