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Prayer for Healing
Lord, look upon me with eyes of mercy, may Your healing hand rest upon me, may Your lifegiving powers flow into every cell of my body and into the depths of my soul, cleansing, purifying, restoring me to wholeness and strength for service in Your Kingdom.
Amen.
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Anointing of the Sick
By the sacred anointing of the sick and the prayer of the priests the whole Church commends those who are ill to the suffering and glorified Lord, that he may raise them up and save them and indeed she exhorts them to contribute to the good of the People of God by freely uniting themselves to the Passion and death of Christ.
Illness can lead to anguish, self-absorption, sometimes even despair and revolt againstGod. It can also make a person more mature, helping him discern in his life what is not essential so that he can trun toward that which is. Very often illness provokes a search for God and a return to him.
This sacred anointing of the sick was instituted by Christ our Lord as a true and proper sacrament of the New Testament. It is alluded to indeed by Mark, but is recommended to the faithful and promulgated by James the apostle and brother to the Lord.
The Anointing of the Sick "is not a sacrament for those only who are at the point of death. Hence, as soon as anyone of the faithful begins to be in danger of death from illness or old age, the fitting time for him to receive this sacrament has certainly already arrived. Only priests (bishops and presbyters) are ministers of the Anointing of the Sick."
The celebration of the Anointing of the Sick consists essentially in the anointing of the forehead and hands of the sick person (in the Roman Rite) or of other parts of the body (Eastern Rite), the anointing being accompanied by the liturgical prayer of the celebrant asking for the special grace of this sacrament.
The special grace of the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick has as its effects:- The uniting of the sick person to the passion of Christ, for his own good and that of the whole Church;
- The strengthening, peace, and courage to endure in a Christian manner the sufferings of illness or old age;
- The forgivenss of sins, if the sick person was not able to obtain it through the sacrament of Penance (Reconciliation);
- The restoration of health, if it is conducive to the salvation of this soul; and
- The preparation for passing over to eternal life.
If a sick person who received this anointing recovers his health, he can in the case of another grave illness receive this sacrament again. If during the same illness the person's condition becomes more serious, the sacrament may be repeated. It is fitting to receive the Anointing of the Sick just prior to a serious operation. The same holds for the elderly whose frailty becomes more pronounced.