World Day of the Sick

“It is not good that man should be alone—Healing the Sick by Healing Relationships,” is the theme of Pope Francis' message for the 2024 commemoration of the World Day of the Sick, held on 11 February.

February 11 also coincides with the Feast Day of Our Lady of Lourdes.  It is the anniversary of when Our Blessed Mother appeared to St. Bernadette Soubirous in Lourdes, France.  Our Blessed Mother's many visitations to St. Bernadette resulted in the miraculous waters from the springs at Lourdes where thousands of faith-filled sick have been healed. 

World Day of the Sick is held every year on this date and as a theme for this year, Pope Francis uses the words from Genesis that God spoke after creating the first human, "It is not good that man should be alone." 

Unsplash: Laura Vinck

We are encouraged to seek healing by healing relationships—something our world needs to heed when so many wars are the result of humans not believing that we can live peacefully, together on Earth. 

The operative word is LOVE; not like, or tolerate, or endure, or accept but LOVE where one's focus is on the good of the other.

To learn more about this year's theme you can read or listen to the message from Rome here. 

-Sister Elaine Cole, csj

“And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is LOVE.”

— 1 Corinthians 13:13

World Day of the Sick

The theme of this 31st World Day of the Sick, “Take care of him,” is taken from the parable of The Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). What thoughts arise in you as you reflect on this theme inviting you to Take care of him? Might your first thought be, who is this he and how would I take care of him, or her? 

We may never have occasion to take care of someone attacked and beaten by robbers, however, we are invited to be in solidarity with all who are hurt or sick in body, mind, or spirit and to pray for them. Recently a dear friend, seriously ill in hospital, described those who were praying for her as her backbone, as hers was crumbling. We are invited to be there for those who suffer. When we embrace be-attitudes, being there for others, praying and visiting the sick, we are their backbone. Through our prayer, we can make a difference in someone’s life.

In his message for this World Day of the Sick, Pope Francis invites “all of us to reflect on the fact that it is especially through the experience of vulnerability and illness that we can learn to walk together according to the style of God, which is closeness, compassion, and tenderness.” As important as it is to pray for our sick sisters and brothers, being good-hearted alone is not enough. It is a good start, but more is asked of us.  We also need to be present and attentive towards those who are ill. Visiting and compassionately supporting them, provides support and consolation in their suffering. 

Besides praying for the sick, offering gratitude to healthcare professionals, frontline staff, first responders, those who provide spiritual healing and volunteers. Holding them in prayer, is equally important. Just think of all those medical staff who spent the last years wearing PPE and battling to save people’s lives.

Many people live in environments that are not healthy, live lives that are not healthy. Let us pray daily for the sickness in our world as well as for our planet which itself is sick. Again and again, we hear that nearly half the planet is under threat. As a friend of mine tends to say, let’s change things by spilling good. Together, let us spill good and pray daily for all those who work for healing and wholeness for our ailing world and all who tend to our sick sisters and brothers.

We would do well to make our own the sentiment of the Quaker missionary Etienne de Grellet:

“I shall pass this way but once; any good that I can do or any kindness I can show to any human being; let me do it now. Let me not defer nor neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.”

https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/messages/sick/documents/20230110-giornata-malato.html

Sr. Magdalena Vogt, cps

Being Presence: Being Mercy

A REFLECTION FOR WORLD DAY OF THE SICK, 2022 

The World Day of the Sick, initiated by Pope St. John Paul 11 thirty years ago and recognized in the Catholic Church each February 11, is a day set aside to pray with and for those who are sick and to be reminded of our human and faith-based call to respond with care, commitment and healing presence. This designated day is not, however, a one-off annual remembrance. Its intent is to sharpen our focus everyday on the needs of those who are sick.   

Given the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic we might want to say that we cannot help but be aware of the overwhelming numbers of those who are sick; many ill with Covid, others whose medical care and treatments have been delayed, numerous others struggling with mental health issues and those at the end of life facing isolation in dying. We are living days of great disease, of suffering and of loss. To what then does this World Day of the Sick call us in the context in which we find ourselves?  

In his message for the 2022 World Day of the Sick, Pope Francis reminds us that we are called to be “merciful like God”. He says, “mercy is to be understood not as an occasional sentimental feeling but as an ever-present and active force. It combines strength and tenderness.” It’s to this that people of faith, as we work with others, are called in these harrowing times. Christians, Francis says, must imitate the healing ministry of Jesus, who as the Gospels remind us, “encountered people suffering from various illnesses” reaching out to heal them.  

While we are rightly grateful for all the advances made in medical science and for courageous, self-giving health care professionals risking all right now, we also each have a role in caring for those who are sick. 

Image: Unsplash/Kelly Sikkema

Sometimes, when faced with illness, we can feel fearful or inadequate and yet we are, nonetheless, called. We can never forget the dignity and vulnerabilities of each person. Someone who is sick is always more than his or her disease. Dr. Lissa Rankin, a physician specializing in mind-body medicine remarks, “Sometimes we forget when people are sick that what they most need is to feel connected, to be loved, to be touched.” Each of us, given the diversity of our gifts, can attend to this even in these days of restriction. 

Image: Unsplash/chris liu

Perhaps, above all, we are called to be a merciful presence; to be with, to walk with those who are sick and with their carers for whom we may be able to offer practical help or a time of respite. Even if I have personal physical limitations I can pray daily with and for those who are sick. I may be able to call someone to support them, send a card or letter expressing love, comfort and concern reminding a person of the gift they have been in my life or recounting special memories of times past spent together. Perhaps a visit is possible, even a socially-distanced visit! Above all, I can find ways to listen respectfully, tenderly. I can simply be with another. I don’t need a multitude of words, I don’t need to worry what to say I just need to “be there”.

Silence is sometimes the gentle gift. An appropriate tenderness of touch can speak more than a million words. Especially in the context of illness at the end of life, presence is one of the greatest gifts I can offer. This is expressed eloquently in the question posed by Sister Mary Catherine Hilkert, O.P., “Can I say to my neighbour ‘I have no solution, I don’t know the answer but I will walk with you, search with you, be with you?” This, perhaps above all, is the invitation of the World Day of the Sick each year. 

-Sister Mary Rowell, csj