Day 7: The Sacrament of the Sick

The seventh day of the Saint Peregrine Novena turns to the Catholic sacrament that is particularly addressed to the situation of serious illness: the Anointing of the Sick. The novena prayed for healing should not stand alone; it is a Catholic preparation for and complement to the sacramental ministry of the Catholic Church to the sick. Today we deepen our understanding of this sacrament.

Today's invocation

O great Saint Peregrine, you have been called the Mighty, the Wonder-Worker... (the full opening prayer)

Today's meditation

The Catholic Church teaches seven sacraments: Baptism, Confirmation, the Holy Eucharist, Penance, the Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders, and Matrimony. The Anointing of the Sick is one of the sacraments of healing (with Penance) and is given to the Catholic faithful who are seriously ill. The sacrament is administered by a priest (only a priest, not a deacon or a lay minister) by anointing the forehead and the hands of the patient with oil that has been blessed by the bishop, accompanied by the sacramental 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."¹

The Catholic theology of the sacrament was definitively articulated by the Council of Trent in 1551 and developed by the Second Vatican Council in Sacrosanctum Concilium (1963). The sacrament is given for the seriously ill, not principally for the dying (although it is given also to the dying as part of the Catholic last rites). The conditions for receiving the sacrament are: serious illness (a physical condition that places the soul in danger of death, or a serious chronic illness, or upcoming major surgery), the state of grace (or the willingness to confess sins beforehand if the patient is conscious and able), and the disposition of faith.

The graces of the sacrament are precise. The Catechism teaches: "the special grace of the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick has as its effects: the uniting of the sick person to the passion of Christ, for his own good and that of the whole Church; the strengthening, peace, and courage to endure in a Christian manner the sufferings of illness or old age; the forgiveness of sins, if the sick person was not able to obtain it through the sacrament of Penance; the restoration of health, if it is conducive to the salvation of his soul; the preparation for passing over to eternal life" (CCC 1532).

The Catholic patient with serious illness should request the sacrament from the parish priest or the hospital chaplain. The sacrament can be received multiple times if the illness recurs, intensifies, or progresses; the Catholic patient with chronic serious illness is encouraged to receive the sacrament several times during the course of the illness.

Today's intention

Today, if you are praying this novena for a serious illness (your own or another's) and the sacrament has not yet been received, plan today to arrange the reception of the sacrament. Contact the parish priest, the hospital chaplain, or a Catholic priest known to the family. The novena and the sacrament work together in the Catholic life of the seriously ill.

If the sacrament has already been received, give thanks to Saint Peregrine for the grace of the sacrament and ask his continued intercession that the graces of the sacrament may bear their full fruit.

Reflection

The Catholic spiritual tradition has long observed that the sacraments are the principal means of grace in serious illness, and that private devotions like the novena are properly understood as supports for the sacramental life rather than as substitutes for it. The Catholic patient who relies only on the novena, neglecting the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick, has misunderstood the Catholic order of grace. The Catholic patient who has received the sacrament and now prays the Saint Peregrine Novena is participating in the proper Catholic discipline of illness.

The fear of the sacrament that some Catholic faithful inherited from the pre-conciliar association of the last rites with imminent death has been corrected in the post-conciliar Catholic teaching. The sacrament is for the seriously ill, not only for the dying. To receive it is not a sign of spiritual surrender; it is a Catholic claim on the grace the Lord wishes to give in serious illness.

Closing prayers

Conclude with the Our Father, the Hail Mary, and the Glory Be.

Saint Peregrine, intercede that the graces of the Sacrament of the Sick may bear their full fruit in our lives.

Footnotes

1. Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 1499-1532 (the Anointing of the Sick). Available at vatican.va. Pope Saint Paul VI, Sacram Unctionem Infirmorum (apostolic constitution, 30 November 1972), the post-conciliar revision of the rite. ↩