The Chapel of the Visitation
Our Chapel is a peaceful space situated on the
ground floor within the main entrance of the Hospital. It is
open both day and night, you, your family and friends are welcome
to visit, rest, reflect, pray or just enjoy the beauty of the
chapel at any time. During the day people can light a candle, as a
sign of their prayer or good wishes for others; or leave a request
for prayer.
Catholic Mass is celebrated every Thursday at
11.30am, and Anglican Mass is celebrated every Friday at 11.30 am.
For your convenience, Chapel Services are broadcast on Channel 1 of
the hospital television network.
In addition, the Sisters of St John of God
hold Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament on Tuesdays and Thursdays
between 2pm and 4pm.
The “Book of Memory” is also held within the
Chapel. This Book contains the names of all who have died in
the hospital since it was established in 1915. Each day a new page
is presented – the page with the names of people whose anniversary
of death occurs on that day. Thus within the Chapel we are
reminded of Life’s Journey, its beginning and its end.
The Chapel contains a major works of art. The
arch-shaped window created by Melbourne stained glass painter,
Bruce Hutton depicts the story of St John of God Hospital Ballarat.
(Photo courtesy of the Ballarat Courier)
The bottom of the window included pictures of
St John of God, Bishop Thomas Furlong, who founded the congregation
of the Sisters of St John of God and Bishop Matthew Gibney, the
Bishop of Perth who sent for the Sisters to come from Ireland to
Western Australia.
There are also images of the boat SS Orizaba
that the Sisters travelled on, the small house, Adelaide Terrace in
Perth, which became the first St John of God Hospital, and finally
Bailey’s mansion Circa 1915.
The images are interspersed with pictures of
the St John of God symbol, the pomegranate, in various stages of
bloom.
Rising above that is a landscape of Ballarat,
depicting local landmarks, including Lake Wendouree and the Arch of
Victory.
The top of the window features the Celtic
cross.
The window shows the transition from a
religious-run hospital to a laity-run organisation. There is a
sense of transcendence from the foundation story to the Ballarat
landscape and then to the Celtic cross, which connects the
Irish/Christian heritage.