By Amy White
The Texas Catholic

“You’re there when there’s life, and you’re there when there’s death.”

With these words, Lena Carrera described the work of a chaplain—accompanying the sick, comforting the grieving, praying with the dying. This is work that she herself has taken on since 2023 as a lay Diocese of Dallas chaplain serving at Parkland Health.

In June, Carrera received recognition for this work from Parkland’s Spiritual Care department, which presented her with a Leading with Heart award. The award is presented to “somebody who exemplifies what it means to lead with care, compassion, empathy, hope, love—all of those things,” Michael Brumley, program manager for the Spiritual Care department at Parkland, said.

Brumley shared that Carrera is the first of the award’s recipients to be chosen from outside of the Parkland Spiritual Care department, selected for her heartfelt accompaniment of the population at the hospital.

“It’s because of just how amazing what she’s able to bring to the department is,” Brumley shared. “She’s helping people who might otherwise feel unseen or unheard to be seen or heard.”

Leading with care
Although Carrera began working as a chaplain only a little more than a year ago, caretaking has long been a central part of her life.

“I was at many bedsides,” she said, looking back on her life, “from a grandmother to an aunt or a friend.”

For years, Carrera worked in the special needs community doing community outreach for a special needs attorney. In 2020, she transitioned into the role of caretaker for her father.

“I had quit my job to go home and take care of my dad with my mother. We knew that dad was closer to the end of his life,” she said. “I really just became everything to them: nurse, cook, chef, maid, therapist.”

Through caring for her father, Carrera made intimate contact with end-of-life care, and she witnessed the value of it.

“I’m very glad that God led me there to be there with my parents,” she said. “I saw the beauty and the sacredness of the end of life.”

Inspired by the experience of serving her father at the twilight of his earthly life, Carrera began working as an end-of-life doula in 2021.

“It’s a very holistic way of walking through the end of someone’s life, trying to help them prepare, whether it’s for their directives, their wills, legal documents, spirituality,” she said. “I think having the conversations about death and the sacredness of it, the beauty of it—if you can bring that positivity to it. It kind of takes the fear away.”

After serving as an end-of-life doula, Carrera continued to serve the vulnerable and grieving, including as a bereavement coordinator. In March of 2023, she became a chaplain with the Diocese of Dallas.

“It was heaven-sent to be able to know that the diocese needed somebody to do the same type of work that I’ve been doing,” she recalled. “Hospital chaplaincy, it’s not a role that you raise your hand for… I totally believe that what happened with me is that God found me.”

“As a fellow Catholic, I was excited to have somebody in that role, because each day easily a third of our patient population is Catholic,” Brumley explained, adding that Carrera is also able to minister to many patients by being bilingual. “She speaks the language of many of our patients, and she has a heart for service.”

Leading with love
As a chaplain, Carrera is daily at the service of people who are experiencing some of the most difficult moments of their lives. In those moments, she relies on God to work through her for the benefit of those she serves.

“A lot of times, you don’t know what to say,” she said. “You ask the Holy Spirit to guide you, to give them what they need; but for the most part, you’re being present and you’re showing support and you’re showing love in a very intimate way with strangers.”

This heartfelt approach is exactly what makes Carrera a fitting recipient of the Leading with Heart award, Brumley said.

“In the way that Lena works, day in and day out, tirelessly to provide care to these patients, even on Saturdays and Sundays occasionally, we just felt that she was somebody illustrating the meaning of that award with how they live their life,” Brumley said.

“Lena is the kind of person who patients want to see, just as a Catholic person living their faith, someone who is grounded in their love for service.”

Juan Rendon, director of the Diocese of Dallas’ Catholic Social Ministries Office, agreed, saying that Carrera embodies the Gospel mission to serve one’s neighbors.

“Since 2023, chaplain Marilena exemplifies the very best of the mission of Catholic Social Ministries by her demonstrated compassionate holistic approach of walking through this life-ministry with patients and their families,” Rendon said. “Being attentive to and guided by the urgings of the Holy Spirit, she inspires and leads by devoted example. She is an effective collaborator of pastoral care in the Spiritual Care department who shares those many lessons with her peers, as well as medical staff. She richly deserves such accolades and serves as a model for all chaplains. We are blessed to have chaplain Marilena Carrera as a co-worker in the vineyard of the Lord in the Diocese of Dallas.”

Carrera said she was humbled to be chosen as the recipient of the Leading with Heart award.

“For them to acknowledge that they see us and they understand all the work that we do… that was really meaningful to me,” she said. “[The award] is not just for my sake, but for all the other chaplains and the priests that really see some very difficult things and help carry a lot of heavy crosses with some of the patients. People don’t realize that we’re here for them; and we’re a phone call away.”

Cutline for featured image: Diocese of Dallas chaplain Lena Carrera received the Leading with Heart award from Parkland Health’s Spiritual Care department in June in recognition of her heartfelt work as a chaplain. She is the first recipient of the award to be chosen from outside of Parkland’s Spiritual Care department.