Dear Accidental Intercessors:

Many years ago, while new to my role as chaplain, one of my patients treated my first visit to his hospital room as an opportunity to vent every hostile feeling he harbored against religion, the church and God. Although we had just met, I found myself becoming defensive. I wanted to explain that I was not like those other religious folk who had disappointed, even injured, him; but he left little room for me to voice my protestations. Following such a drubbing, my first inclination was to skip his room the next time I performed my rounds, but after a long conversation with my supervisor I was compelled to try again. “Clearly he needed to talk to you,” my supervisor Fr. Jim Creighton told me. “I mean, look at how much he had to say in response to your just saying ‘hello’.”

Adjusting my ego, I returned to his room for a second visit,