The Rev. Edward McCabe didn’t want to go to Fort Hood when the assignment came for the Army Reserves captain to become senior Catholic chaplain at the sprawling military post.

McCabe, a priest from Milton attached to the Archdiocese of Boston, had lived around water all his life, and a land-locked post in Texas offered no appeal. 

But, he said, something called him to accept the post.

Two months after he arrived, when he was needed to pray for those felled by a gunman, McCabe came to understand why Fort Hood was where he needed to be. 

After Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan allegedly went on a shooting rampage that left 13 dead and many more wounded, McCabe provided last rites to soldiers dying of gunshot wounds and prayed over the bodies of nine more who lay slain in a building on the post. 

“In retrospect, I know why I came here,” McCabe said by phone last night from Texas, his voice hoarse, and nearly gone. 

“A priest has to believe that the Holy Spirit is guiding you. I was led by the Spirit, and here I am,” he said.

Go to the link and read the whole thing, and his account of that awful day.