Mother of perpetual help prayer for the sick

A prayer by Pope Francis before the original icon of Our Mother of Perpetual Help in Rome.

The shrine has responded to the needs of the sick since its beginning. Many sick devotees have asked the shrine for help in their sickness, whether spiritual and material. Since the beginning of the novena, there was a prayer for the sick. The shrine has also celebrated many healing masses with praying over and anointing of oil for the sick, through the years.

To give a more concrete and organized response to the needs of the sick, however, the shrine established the Redemptorist Medical & Dental Health Program. The clamor of people for health services because of the unavailability of health services to the poor, the high cost of medicines, medical services and consultations which the poor cannot afford were some of the concrete needs that led to the establishment of Medical/Dental services of the shrine. Established in 1991, the Redemptorist Medical & Dental Health Program aims to respond to the health needs and formation of its beneficiaries and extend assistance to calamity stricken areas.

At the center of the Redemptorist Medical & Dental Health Program is the shrine’s clinic. It is an outpatient clinic that offers primary health care services like maternal and child care, control and prevention of communicable diseases, health education, minor surgical procedures, environmental sanitation, Natural Family Planning Method and basic dental procedures.  The clinic is open two days a week at Wednesday 8:00am – 7pm and Sunday – 8:00 am– 5:00 pm. The clinic is operated by a full time clinic staff, and medical/dental health practitioners and volunteers.  Those who avail of the services are churchgoers, indigent walk-in patients with referrals from NGO’s within Parañaque, shrine volunteers and staff, beneficiaries of the Social Mission programs of the shrine and adopted Community/Mission Areas.

The second primary program of the Medical and Dental Services of the shrine is an outreach program. It aims to provide immediate health services to calamity stricken areas, nission areas of the Redemptorist Community from the Vice Province of Manila, organized communities of People’s Organizations, communities with poor health statistics, limited or has no access to or low quality health services and low socioeconomic status.

The Redemptorist Medical & Dental Health Program also implements advocacy and networking. This extends current services by collaborating with governments and local organizations, church, other private institutions. It also establishes networking and referral to hospitals, institutions and other health agencies to help the beneficiaries in their health needs.

The program also have a regular education and training program for the Baclaran clinic staff and volunteers, beneficiaries from  Mission Areas, Health Committee members, and regular beneficiaries. There is an effort to support the development of appropriate indigenous health care like acupuncture, herbal medicines, etc.

On this World Day of the Sick let us pray for all our brothers and sisters who are in need of God’s healing, whether in body or in spirit. Let us also pray for all the carers of the sick–the Doctors, Nurses, caregivers, and others. Let us pray the prayer for the sick at the Novena:

Lord Jesus Christ * you bore our sufferings and carried our sorrows * in order to show us clearly * the value of human weakness and patience; * graciously hear our prayer for the sick especially ___________________________ (pause and remember your sick loved ones). Grant that they who are weighed down * with pain and other affliction of illness * may experience God’s healing power and comfort*. Restore them to health* in body and soul* so that they can continue to serve you* and their brothers and sisters.
Amen.

In the Baclaran shrine, from among the thousands of thanksgiving letters we received, health and recovery from sickness top the list of specified blessings that the devotees received from God through the prayers of Our Mother of Perpetual Help.

Many of the devotees who come to Baclaran are suffering from various kinds of sickness not just physical but also emotional, mental and spiritual. In the novena every Wednesday, many of the devotees pray for healing and recovery from their illness. In the novena, there is a special Prayer for the Sick where devotees pray for healing for themselves and their loved ones.

In 2016, the Prayer for the Sick went through a major revision. The former prayer seemed to romanticize sickness by projecting an image of the sick who have nothing more they can do about their sickness except to embrace it. God’s compassion and strong desire for the healing of the sick is not much evident. Thus, the prayer was revised to express a more redemptive kind of healing not only for the sick person, but also for the whole family of the sick.

The theme of the readings for today’s 23rd Sunday in ordinary time is about God’s healing.  Salvation from God is not just salvation from our sins but also healing and recovery from sickness. Salvation comes from the Latin word, salūs which means to be well and healthy. God’s healing, however, is holistic; it is not just physical but also emotional, mental and spiritual.

In the first reading, the prophet Isaiah describes the vision of the coming of God’s kingdom as opening the eyes of the blind, clearing the ears of the deaf, and even brightening up the environment.

Then will the eyes of the blind be opened,
the ears of the deaf be cleared;
then will the lame leap like a stag,
then the tongue of the mute will sing.
Streams will burst forth in the desert,
and rivers in the steppe.
The burning sands will become pools,
and the thirsty ground, springs of water.

The responsorial psalm, Psalm 146, is a psalm of praise for the healing power of God, especially for his opening of the eyes of the blind.

The second reading from the Letter of James, focuses not on the physical but spiritual blindness. James warns against taking people according to their physical appearance. The example James gives is that of giving a well-dressed visitor special treatment while neglecting a poorly dressed person, forgetting the beatitude about the poor. That, he implies, is a symptom of spiritual blindness.

For if a man with gold rings and fine clothes
comes into your assembly,
and a poor person in shabby clothes also comes in,
and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes
and say, “Sit here, please, ”
while you say to the poor one, “Stand there, ” or “Sit at my feet, ”
have you not made distinctions among yourselves
and become judges with evil designs?

Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters.
Did not God choose those who are poor in the world
to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom
that he promised to those who love him?

In the Gospel, Mark presents Jesus as the kind of savior prophesied by Isaiah. Jesus did a miracle of healing: a man who was deaf and impaired in speech becomes able to hear and to speak plainly. What Isaiah communicates as vision through poetry, Jesus communicates through action in the here and now. We tend to think of salvation in terms of heaven and the hereafter. Jesus’ action open us to salvation as an event that is here and now.

And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment
and begged him to lay his hand on him.
He took him off by himself away from the crowd.
He put his finger into the man’s ears
and, spitting, touched his tongue;
then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him,
“Ephphatha!”— that is, “Be opened!” —
And immediately the man’s ears were opened,
his speech impediment was removed,
and he spoke plainly.

Jesus command to the deaf-mute man, Aramaic, ephphatha “Be opened” is more than a just a matter of physical healing. It is also a spiritual healing: God’s superabundant life breaking open our closed human condition. What Jesus commands with respect to the deaf-mute man before, he commands with respect to us today. In the gospel, Jesus commands us, “Be opened!” If we listened well and hard, we too are healed: our ears are opened to hear the Good News and our tongues are loosened to proclaim it.

What sickness and disability do we need to be healed and liberated from? Let us ask Jesus to loosen our tongues, open our deaf ears and touch our blind eyes so we may truly hear, see and speak of the truth and peace of the Word who is Jesus.