Religious sisters show dignified and peaceful way to aging and dying

A recent New York Times story describes the peaceful, spiritual nature of an aging community of nuns. Specifically, the story relays the care and introspection that accompanies the ill and infirm sisters who face nearing death.

Here's an excerpt:

Few sisters opt for major surgery, high-tech diagnostic tests or life-sustaining machinery. And nobody can remember the last time anyone died in a hospital . . . .

“There is a time to die and a way to do that with reverence,” said Sister Mary Lou, 56, a former nurse. “ Hospitals should not be meccas for dying. Dying belongs at home, in the community."
. . .

[The primary physician for the sisters,] Dr. McCann said that the sisters’ religious faith insulated them from existential suffering — the “Why me?” refrain commonly heard among those without a belief in an afterlife. Absent that anxiety and fear, Dr. McCann said, there is less pain, less depression, and thus the sisters require only one-third the amount of narcotics he uses to manage end-of-life symptoms among hospitalized patients.