As a permanent deacon for the Diocese of Springfield–Cape Girardeau, MO, I serve in inpatient spiritual care and mission integration at Saint Francis Medical Center in Southeast Missouri. Each day, I enter rooms filled with uncertainty, patients waiting for test results, families holding vigil, or staff quietly bearing grief. And yet, hope shows up. Sometimes it’s in the form of a whispered psalm, the touch of a hand, or the silence of shared prayer. I’ve come to see hope not as something I provide, but as something I carry in my presence. In a largely secular environment, even in the heart of Southeast Missouri, hope becomes a subtle, holy resistance, an affirmation that Christ is near, even in suffering.
My formation at Saint Meinrad taught me to see hope as eschatological, not in outcomes but in the Resurrection. The Psalms shaped my inner landscape; the rhythm of the liturgy shaped my heart. As a professed Secular Franciscan, I strive to live the Gospel with joy, simplicity, and compassion, especially in the corridors of the Medical Center, where people often feel forgotten. St. Benedict reminds us to welcome each guest as Christ. In my ministry, that guest may be a ventilated patient, a distraught spouse, or an exhausted nurse. In each, I’ve found Christ waiting. And in each, I’ve discovered that hope is not a concept, but a person, Jesus Christ, encountered in the breaking of hearts and the breaking of bread.
Dcn. Robert “Tony” Peters, Graduate Theology Student, Diocese of Springfield–Cape Girardeau