A letter from the Chairman

September 2,2009

Greetings in the Lord,

Summer is coming to an end. Families have returned from vacations and children have started school. Coming up quickly is the 40 Hours Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in honor of St. Anthony Mary Zaccaria, the patron saint of physicians and the founder of the priest order of the Barnabites.

Since this celebration falls on the second Friday of September, you are welcome to come and spend time with Jesus. The Blessed Sacrament will be exposed for 40 consecutive hours, from September 10 at 7:00 PM until September 12 at 11:00 AM. Closing with the celebration of the Holy Mass.

As usual we will have our prayerful meeting on the third Saturday, September 19 at 1:30 PM. Attached, please find the invitation to participate in the 40 hours Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament from Fr. Robert Kosek.

God bless!

Maria A. M. Ramos MD.

Monthly Encounters of the Medical Society of St. Anthony Zaccaria

Medical Society of
St Anthony Mary Zaccaria

Monthly Mass – 2nd Fri @ 7:00 p.m.


Monthly Meeting – 3rd Sat 1:30-3:00 p.m.

July 2009 Program

Dear Doctors,

Greetings in our Lord, Jesus Christ!

I hope that all of you are enjoying the warm weather. I pray that you would like to refresh your busy lives by coming to reflect on the Healing stories of Jesus and learn from the teachings of St. Anthony Mary Zaccaria. Remember that when we walk with Jesus and ask for His help in our lives, the work becomes easier.

See you in our next meeting on Saturday July 18th at 1:30 PM when we will reflecting on Jesus' healing story passage, A Few Sick Folk, (Matt. 13: 54-58).

Please do not forget that there is Eucharist Celebration every 2nd Friday at 7:00PM for the doctors and their petitions. If you cannot come, please email the petitions to us.

God bless!
Dr. Maria

The Healing Story of the Man Born Blind

by Maria Ramos, M.D.

On March 21,2009, we discussed the story of the healing of the man born blind in John 9:1-41. Like this blind man, we ask Jesus to heal our own blindness, to open our eyes and hearts to Him.

During our scriptural reflection, we were able to recognize that, for our continued conversion, we need to change our old habits. Some of our habits are founded on our pride. This pride is directly related to our individual cultural background. As doctors, we need to nurture our relationship with God. And we do this by making time for God and by receiving the sacraments regularly, especially the sacrament of reconciliation. Confession, as we know, is very important in our conversion because it gives us supernatural grace and keeps us always humble. By making time with God and by receiving the sacraments, we become instruments of God to our patients who are physically very sick, and are also spiritually very sick. We then can build a good doctor – patient relationship through our charity and good works.

Our conversion, that is, living a life in imitation to Christ, is a life-long process. We both struggle to overcome our weaknesses, and to remain faithful to our resolve to do good. Sometimes when we get closer to God, the struggle becomes even harder. It is important then that we keep our trust in Jesus; he alone can light our way and can help us to see the path we are treading on. For Jesus is our friend in our life’s journey. He will surely never make us falter.

An Invitation to the Medical Students

Dear Medical Students,

Greetings of Peace!

The Medical Society of St. Anthony Mary Zaccaria is accepting physicians and medical students who wish to join it. Our Society's main purpose is to nourish and strengthen the relationship of each physician with Jesus, the Divine Physician, and to spiritually sponsor medical students.

As the chairman of the Medical Society of St. Anthony Mary Zaccaria, I warmly invite you to join the Society.  I personally believe that as we grow closer to Jesus we become those wonderful persons who God created and those physicians who help needy people in the world. 

Please feel free then to contact me or any member of the Society if you decide to join.  I look forward to hearing from you. God bless you!

 

Sincerely,

Maria A. M. Ramos M.D. F.A.A.P.

The Chairman of the Medical Society of St. Anthony Zaccaria   

 

You own to yourself a 'spiritual mentor'

Hello fellow members of the Medical Society of Saint Anthony Mary Zaccaria!  It was a pleasure to meet all of you at the first meeting in February.  As Father Robert Kosek, CRSP and  Dr. Maria Ramos explained, one of the objectives is a spiritual mentorship between practicing physicians and medical students/residents.  As a medical student, I think there are many benefits to this mentorship.  Since I know we are all very busy, I think just a small time commitment would be appropriate.  My idea would be to match up a doctor with a student who would then exchange email addresses.  To begin, I suggest just a once monthly email exchange, which will of course be left up to the discretion of the pair.  I think the most useful tool for medical students would be exchanging prayers for each other.  For example, if the student had a big exam or challenging clinical rotation coming up, he or she would ask the physician to pray for that specific request, and would in return pray for anything the physician asks.  The pairs could also exchange any clinical advice or expertise, and any ethical dilemmas, etc.  This is very flexible and again, will be based on the personal needs of each pair.  I am currently working on recruiting any interested medical students from my school.  I welcome any thoughts and feedback from the members of the group!  Thank you!

- Ruth Stefanski, 4th year medical student  

An invitation to Medical Society of St. Anthony Zaccaria for Medical Students

Dear Medical Students,

Greetings in the Risen Lord!  

Let me introduce myself to you first all. I am Fr. Robert Kosek of the congregation of the Clerics Regular of St. Paul (Barnabite Fathers). Currently, I am the spiritual director of the Medical Society of St. Anthony Mary Zaccaria, a newly formed group of Catholic doctors and medical students in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

The Society had its first meeting on Feb 21, 2009 at our place, in the Barnabite Spiritual Center. It was during this meeting that I had the privilege to introduce to a group of doctors your college friend, Ms. Ruth Stefanski. I would say that her presence (being the only medical student among the doctors) and active participation during the meeting was of great value. I express my appreciation to Ms. Stefanski. 

It was then that the idea of a “spiritual mentor” for medical students was introduced and adapted by the doctors. Ms. Stefanski may have already explained it to you; however, let me delineate once again that the significance of this spiritual mentorship points to your well being as future doctors. Indeed your spiritual as well as professional formation is crucial to the holistic healing of the people under your care. Therefore, I invite you to consider joining our Society. We will be most pleased to welcome you.

If you so decide, please contact me at 610-691-8648 or you may write to me at Barnabite Spiritual Center, 4301 Hecktown Road, Bethlehem, PA 18020 or  email me at MedSocAMZac@gmail.com 

I hope for your positive response.  

I assure you of my prayerful support in your academic and personal endeavors. May God bless you.

Sincerely yours in Christ, 

Fr. Robert B. Kosek, CRSP, Ph.D.