Caring for our Sick

Friends

    Peace be with you. 

    This weekend we will invite people to receive the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick at the end of all our Masses. Who should and shouldn’t receive this sacrament? Let me begin saying who should. If you have a serious illness of some kind, such as cancer or COPD or heart disease, where your life could end soon, you should be anointed. Or if you are older and feeling weak due to age, you should be anointed. Or if you are going to have serious surgery soon, you should be anointed. Anointing can provide spiritual strength to get you through these times and provide forgiveness of less serious sins in case you die. It’s good, if you are able, to pair receiving the Sacrament of Reconciliation with the Anointing of the Sick because confession is the normal means for forgiveness of sins and the only Sacrament we have that is meant to forgive serious/mortal sins. Lastly, Anointing of the Sick is what used to be called Last Rites. There is a prayer that can be added on called the Apostolic Pardon but the substance of Last Rites is the anointing with the Oil of the Sick. 

    Who should not be anointed? If you are perfectly healthy or have a non-serious illness you should not be anointed. If you are not fully initiated but seriously ill, you should be fully initiated instead of anointed. In other words, if a person is not baptized or hasn’t received first communion or been confirmed, we should do that instead of anointing them even if the person is not of the normal age where they would receive that sacrament. If the person is already dead, we cannot anoint them because sacraments are for the living so please tell your loved ones to call the priest before the last possible second. 

    Otherwise, I hope everyone is doing okay. It feels like we’ve had a lot of funerals recently and that means many of you have been touched by the loss of a loved one. As we draw closer to Thanksgiving and Christmas, please know that I’ll be thinking about you and praying for you and your family. It’s important to lean on friends and family members when we feel the loss of a loved one, even if it has been several years since it happened. Give family members a call and reminisce a little. There’s always a chance that they were thinking about the person who passed as well and, even if they weren’t, they’ll appreciate hearing a story about a deceased loved one. I’m here for you too. 

    God bless you all.