(Reprinted from the Grady Memorial Hospital News)

On Wednesday evening, February 4, the first Roman Catholic Mass ever held in Grady’s Goddard Chapel was celebrated. On Friday, February 6, Mrs. Annabelle Jones went home from Grady Hospital. The two seemingly disconnected events are all part of a greater and more magnificent whole.

Last July Mrs. Jones, who is executive housekeeper for Christ the King Cathedral, was severely injured in an automobile accident. Rushed to Grady, she was discovered to have multiple fractures, chest injuries, and injury to the spinal cord which paralyzed her from the waist down. She was not expected to recover.

But recover she did, in an amazing and miraculous way. Months ago no one would have thought Mrs. Jones would be able to leave Grady this month using only two small hand crutches to help her walk. Yet that’s what happened.

Mrs. Jones, a devout Roman Catholic, wanted to show her thanksgiving for this amazing recovery in a special way. One could say that “the fullness of time” had arrived at Grady for Mrs. Jones to show her appreciation in the way she desired. At Grady the overwhelming majority of patients are Protestant in background, but for the first time the chaplain’s department had Roman Catholics in training. One such chaplain, Father James Dugal, had become quite close to Mrs. Jones during her stay, as had also Methodist Chaplain Albert Turnell. Mrs. Jones requested a special Mass of thanksgiving, and that’s how Grady Hospital came to have the first Mass in its chapel.

So on February 4 an ecumenical Mass was held in the chapel. Over twenty people were present, including several other patients, some nursing staff from 700 where Mrs. Jones was a patient, some of Mrs. Jones personal friends. Methodist Chaplain Turnell assisted Father Dugal in the service, as did priests from two nearby Catholic churches.

The service itself was an interesting combination of what is traditionally associated with Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. Parts of the service were more reminiscent of a Baptist revival or a Methodist camp meeting, while the chapel was given by an Episcopalian and is decorated in the Episcopalian decor. The opening and closing hymns were “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” and “Amazing Grace.” There was a “sharing time” in the midst of the service in which several members of the congregation participated.

Father Dugal’s meditation was appropriately based upon Luke 17: 11-19, where ten men with leprosy were cured by Jesus but only one returned to thank him. Here in Mrs. Jones, Father Dugal pointed out, was one like the leper who chose to remember and give thanks. Then the service proceeded with the offering of the Mass.

Following the service the chaplain’s department expressed the hope that this service would lead to additional Roman Catholic services in the Goddard Chapel in the future.

All of us at Grady also give thanks for Mrs. Annabelle Jones, for her wonderful spirit as a patient, for her recovery, and special thanks for the meaningful way she gave her thanksgiving.