BY: SR. BARBARA McMULLEN, CDP
Call To Prayer
Leader
This day, O God, we praise you for the many ways we have come to know the gifts of kindness and gentleness as healing for our own hurts.
All
Help us this day to be instruments of healing for our sisters and brothers, to be women and men conscious of our responsibilities as your faithful people to respond to the needs of the elderly and vulnerable among us. May we search for ways to partner with others to foster healthy living throughout the continuum of care. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Reading I
Jn 5:1-9
There was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem at the Sheep Gate a pool called in Hebrew Bethesda, with five porticoes. In these lay a large number of ill, blind, lame, and crippled. One man was there who had been ill for 38 years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been ill for a long time, he said to him, "Do you want to be well?" The sick man answered him, "Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; while I am on my way, someone else gets down there before me." Jesus said to him, "Rise, take up your mat, and walk." Immediately the man became well, took up his mat, and walked.
Reading II
"Although extraordinary powers to cure illness and disease have been attributed to particular individuals or places associated with the Church, the gift of healing in a more inclusive, holistic sense has been entrusted to the faith community as a whole.
"This is the perspective which the Church brings to health ministry; it is the key to affirming the changes already beginning to take place, and it is the basis for forming partnerships for healthy living."
Robert L. Kinast and Lawrence G. Seidl, Partners in Healing, Catholic Health Association, St. Louis, 1995, pp. 14-15.
All
"Members of the Church follow the example of Jesus when they carry out the work of healing not only by providing care for the physically ill, but also by working to restore health and wholeness in all facets of the human person and the human community."
National Conference of Catholic Bishops, Health and Health Care, U.S. Catholic Conference, Washington, DC, 1981, p. 4.
Prayer
Jesus, healer of all, help us to be a partner in your healing ministry, finding ways to enhance the life and wholeness of others. Deliver us from any illusion that we do not have the time for collaboration, but link our passion with courage and our caring with persistence, that we may find innovative ways to enhance the lives of the elderly and vulnerable among us. Make of us one people, a community entrusted with your healing. Amen.
This prayer focuses on the need for communities to work together to truly enhance the lives of the elderly and vulnerable. You may use this service at meetings or on any occasion when you wish to take a moment to reflect on the mission of Jesus. Feel free to adapt the service to suit your own needs.
— Sr. Barbara McMullen, CDP, senior associate, Sponsor Services, Catholic Health Association, St. Louis
"Prayer Service," a regular department in Health Progress, may be copied without prior permission.
Copyright © 1999 by the Catholic Health Association of the United States
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