Prayer to the Holy Spirit

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and enkindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit, and they shall be created and you shall renew the face of the earth. O God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit did instruct the hearts of the faithful, Grant that by the same Spirit, we may be truly wise and ever rejoice in his consolations. Through Christ our Lord. Amen

• Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick is inherently bound to the mystery of suffering
• Reminds us of life’s fragility
• People often avoid this sacrament because they choose not to be reminded of human mortality
• When we feel the limits of human condition – the immortal God draws closest to us
• Christ the Good Physician bestows spiritual healing on those who receive it in faith
• Jesus Christ did not distance himself from suffering and death, but entered into these facts of human existence an offered healing consolation and hope
• Second Sacrament of Healing – Anointing of the Sick
• Sickness and being near death are “limit” experiences where you are up against the limits of your strength and your own control over life
• Suffering and illness bring us into a new “country” – we are out of control – loss of control of you own life – you are not in control of your own life
• At the limit of human capability, we are more aware of and in need of God
• We turn our passivity and lack of control over to God so that God can accomplish in s what we could never accomplish on our own
• When we are at the “limits” of our activity, the Church comes with this sacramental presence and its power
• Over and over again in the Gospels – Jesus heals – reaches out to the blind, the lame, the deaf, the suffering
• Jesus healed using physical signs – mud, spit, touch
• Jesus bequeaths healing to the Church
• Church continues healing – from Acts to present day
• As Jesus was the “Great Physician” the Church comes to spiritually heal the sick
• Received by those who are seriously ill, anticipating major surgery, or near death
• Church does not deny death, but goes there to aid in the transition to eternal life
• Only priests and bishops are the appropriate minister of the sacrament of Anointing. This is due to the Sacraments inclusion of forgiveness and sin
• Extreme Unction – last moments
• Anointing given to anyone with serious illness, approaching surgery, in old age
• Our culture tries to deny death, prizes youth
• Church sees death as a key moment and comes with its sacramental power
• Doctors and nurses are aware of the role that anointing plays in the sickness of the person
• In Anointing of the Sick, we see the Church at its “sacramental best”
• Matter and Form
• Matter – the anointing with oil and laying on of hands
• Form – “Through this Holy Anointing may the Lord in his love and mercy help you with the grace of the Holy Spirit. May the Lord who frees you from sin, save you and raise you up.”
• Effects of the Sacrament
• The grace of comfort, peace, and courage that comes from the Holy Spirit
• Union with the passion of Christ who accepted suffering as the will of his Father, unleashing saving power into the world
• The sick person accepts the suffering as the Father’s will and unleashes saving power into the world
• Pope John Paul – don’t miss the spiritual opportunity that has come to you in your suffering – somehow it unleashes saving power into the world.
• Give your suffering over for the alleviation of someone else
• Let your suffering, through acceptance in faith, be a gift to the world
• By celebrating this sacrament, the Church, in the communion of saints, intercedes for the benefit of the sick person and the sick person, for his [or her] part, by the grace of the sacrament, contributes to the sanctification of the Church”  Catechism of the Catholic Church #1522
• When administered to someone near death (Viaticum), its effect is conformity in a final way to the dying and rising of Christ, bringing to fulfillment what began at Baptism
• Jesus Christ, through the Church, has us surrounded – at the beginning of life (Baptism) and at its end (Anointing)

Prayer of St. Thomas Aquinas

Grant me, O lord my God: A mind to know you,

A heart to seek you, Wisdom to find you,

Conduct pleasing to you, Faithful perseverance in waiting for you,

And a hope of finally embracing you. Amen.