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Summary
- Three short prayers from the Catholic rite for visiting the sick, printed in the 1888 Manual of Prayers, can be said at home or in the hospital with the sick person’s name.
- The same book gives prayers for the sick to say themselves, including the “Prayer in the Beginning of Sickness” and one-line acts of resignation and self-offering.
- Catholics ask Mary, “Health of the sick” in the Litany of Loreto, and Saint Raphael, whose name means “God has healed,” to pray for the sick; the World Day of the Sick is kept on 11 February.
- The Catechism says the Anointing of the Sick “is not a sacrament for those only who are at the point of death” and can be received again with each serious illness; only a priest can give it.
- Seven short modern prayers cover a hospital stay, a sick child, the priest’s visit, pain, sleep, caregivers and thanks for small mercies.
- Prayer goes alongside medical care and never replaces it.
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (1611), text of Project Gutenberg eBook no. 10 (Psalm 4:8; Colossians 1:24; James 5:14–15). https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10
- Tobias 12:14–15 is quoted from the Douay-Rheims Bible (Challoner revision), Project Gutenberg eBook no. 1581. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1581
- A Manual of Prayers for the Use of the Catholic Laity, prepared and published by order of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore. New York: Catholic Publication Society, 1888. Litany of Loreto, p. 65; Devotions for the Sick, pp. 459–462; The Visitation of the Sick, pp. 495–497. https://archive.org/details/AManualOfPrayers1888/page/495/mode/1up
- Lasance, F. X. The Catholic Girl’s Guide: Counsels and Devotions for Girls in the Ordinary Walks of Life. New York: Benziger Brothers, 1906. Prayer to St. Raphael, Archangel, p. 601; Sodality of the Blessed Virgin Mary, p. 637. https://archive.org/details/catholicgirlsgui0000revf_y2r3
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed. Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1997. Paragraphs 1505, 1512, 1514, 1516, 1520, 1521, 1529. https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P4K.HTM
- Code of Canon Law (1983), canon 901. https://www.vatican.va/archive/cod-iuris-canonici/eng/documents/cic_lib4-cann879-958_en.html
- John Paul II. Message for the First Annual World Day of the Sick, 21 October 1992. https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/messages/sick/documents/hf_jp-ii_mes_21101992_world-day-of-the-sick-1993.html
- Driscoll, James F. “St. Raphael.” The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 12. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12640b.htm
- Campbell, Thomas. “St. Camillus de Lellis.” The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 3. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908, with New Advent’s note on the 1930 patronage. https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03217b.htm
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