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Home / Areas of Care/ Spiritual Care

Spiritual Care

Spiritual Care Services is committed to serving all patients, their families, staff and volunteers at St. Mary’s General Hospital, regardless of faith, spirituality or creed. A Chapel and Spiritual Reflection Centre are located on the 3rd floor and are available to all patients, visitors and staff 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

How We Can Help

The Spiritual Care Team can assist with coping strategies and provide support to those in distress. Our diverse team can provide counselling, a caring presence, rituals and advocacy.

Our Services

The Spiritual Care office is open Monday to Friday from 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. 

On-Call Spiritual Care Support

Urgent requests for Spiritual Care support is available after hours at St. Mary’s.

To access any Spiritual Care service, call the hospital switchboard (dial ‘0’ from an internal phone or 519-744-3311 from an outside line), or directly 519-749-6578 ext. 1175.

Celebration of Eucharist (Mass)

  • Each Monday at 1:30pm in the Resurrection Chapel (Third Floor).

Memorial Service

  • For next-of-kin of patients who have died during a three month period of time. Memorial services are held in March, June, September and December on Tuesday evenings.

Communion

  • Eucharistic Ministers attend and distribute communion to Roman Catholic patients Monday to Friday on designate units. Each Sunday a team of Eucharistic Ministers distribute communion to all the units.

Chapel and Spiritual Centre

  • The Resurrection chapel is open at all times and is available for the use of all who wish to access it for the purpose of quiet prayer and reflection. It is located on the third floor of the hospital. This sacred space is also used for our Interdenominational Services, Catholic Mass, Memorial Services and more.
  • The Spiritual Centre, close in proximity to the chapel (room 3-454), is available to people of all spiritual beliefs, traditions and faith backgrounds as well as those who do not subscribe to faith or identify with a particular spiritual tradition. Though all are welcome to use the hospital chapel for reflection, the Spiritual Centre is provided with an understanding and respect for the fact that not all people may feel comfortable in the chapel environment.

Smudging Ceremony

  • The smudging ceremony is a spiritually healing ceremony performed by some Indigenous people, i.e., First Nations, Metis, Inuit. Smudging involves the practice of brushing smoke created by the burning of sacred herbs over the body of the participant as a cleansing ritual. Smudging may be requested by Indigenous patients and their families receiving health services at St. Mary's General Hospital (SMGH). As such, SMGH staff will proactively communicate to all patients identifying as Indigenous that the practice of smudging is valued and supported at our healthcare facility. 

Supervised Pastoral Education

As part of the St. Joseph’s Health System, Supervised Pastoral Education (SPE) at St. Mary’s is offered in collaboration with other member organizations in Guelph, Hamilton, Brantford and Dundas. Beyond a diversity of supervisory staff, this system-wide approach affords our students placement sites ranging from acute to long-term, complex care, palliative to psychiatric, with many specialized centres of clinical practice and research. For more information about our SPE Program, please visit St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton’s SPE program page.