FAST FACTS Name: Mollie Cantor Age: 28 Occupation: Chaplain Intern at Lenox Hill Hospital Residence: Manhattan Born: North Brunswick, New Jersey School: Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion Married last June Worked in a coffee shop for a year before attending rabbinical school

ollie Cantor held the woman’s hands in her own and shut her eyes. She wished the elderly woman well and prayed that her operation would go smoothly. "She seemed so scared about her operation," says Cantor. "I just knew she wanted me to pray with her.

This instinct and her ability to listen have made Cantor one of the brightest chaplain interns at Lenox Hill Hospital, says the Rev. John Bucchino, her supervisor and director of the pastoral care program at the Upper East Side hospital.

"She’s very interested in listening to people," says Bucchino. "She sees that as part of her calling."

A 28-year-old seminary student at the Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion, Cantor will be ordained as a rabbi in the Reform Movement in May. Instead of working in a congregation, Cantor has decided to become a hospital chaplain.

"It’s very satisfying work, visiting patients in a hospital," says Cantor. "Being sick is a huge spiritual crisis for people and our job is to help them with the spiritual journey of illness. I’m not treating the disease at all, I’m treating the person."

The pastoral care program at Lenox Hill Hospital has Jewish, Christian and Islamic chaplains on staff. Full-time chaplains and chaplain interns, such as Cantor, do rounds in the hospital. In cases where patients require chaplains of a different faith, the program brings in outside clergy. Some of the other denominations include Hinduism, Buddhism, Russian Orthodox and Jehovah’s Witness.

The constantly changing face of the congregation is one of the challenges Cantor faces. When some patients discover that she is Jewish, they will ask to see a priest. Other times, patients will want communion or baptisms and she will refer them to other chaplains.

But her faith is not always an issue because some conversations only deal in general terms of spirituality and god. "Sometimes I’ll meet people who will say, ‘Oh, there’s one God, let’s just talk,’ " says Cantor.

Her biggest challenge is the lack of continuity with her patients. Unlike a synagogue or a church, Cantor’s congregation is constantly changing.

"You’ve built a relationship, and the relationship ends when the patient leaves the hospital," says Cantor. "That’s part of the frustration--you don’t know what’s happening, you don’t know what happens after they go home, you don’t know if they make it or not."

Cantor also gets frustrated when she cannot reach her patients. She remembers a Christian man in his 60s who told her that he had nothing to live for and felt that God did not care about him.

"He’s dying," Cantor recalls of the man. "Nothing’s helping him. Sometimes when they tell you that they have nothing to live for and life really sucks, it’s because it does. The struggle comes when I feel that my faith doesn’t really offer the right kind of support. How come it’s not giving us any answers for illness?"

Some Links to Chaplaincy Resources

Association of Professional Chaplains Association for Pastoral Education National Association of Jewish Chaplains Journal of Pastoral Care National Association of Catholic Chaplains

n a really good day, Cantor says the patients want to talk to her and she can connect with them really well. An elderly Jewish woman with cancer stands out in her mind. Cantor recalls the woman telling her, "Give me the prayer rabbi, just give me the prayer." So she gave her a prayer, and started to sing her a song during which the woman started to cry.

"It just felt really good that we were able to connect on some level and I could be there for her," Cantor says.

In a recent visit to an elderly man who has been in the hospital for more than six months, Cantor talked very little about religion or faith. Instead, she focused on building a relationship with the man by asking about his family, his life and telling him that he reminded her of her grandfather. She sat by and listened as he talked about his desire to go home and talked about his daughters and grandchildren.

"A big part of chaplaincy is just listening," she says. "You don’t have to say something. People just need to know that you’re there. There’s a term for it, it’s called a ministry of presence."

After visiting with the man for 20 minutes, Cantor had already built the foundations of a relationship. Discovering that the man was Jewish, Cantor offered to contact his rabbi. Before she left, Cantor held both of his hands and said, "Refuah Sheleima. A complete healing. A healing of your soul and a healing of your body."