(ZENIT News / Vatican City, 07.02.2024).
- Pope Francis ‘s prayer intention this month is for the pastoral care of the sick . The Pope Video that accompanies his words is precisely dedicated to the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick. In the video message published through the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network , Pope Francis asks that we pray that “the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick grant the Lord’s strength to those who receive it and to their loved ones, and that it may become for everyone an ever more visible sign of compassion and hope.
” Consolation, hope’s engine “When the priest draws near a person to perform the Anointing of the Sick, it is not necessarily to help them say goodbye to life . Thinking this way means giving up every hope. It means taking for granted that after the priest, the undertaker will arrive,” Pope Francis notes at the beginning of the video.
The Church’s sacraments are gifts. They are the ways Jesus uses to bless, enliven, accompany, console us. The Church believes and confesses that the priest comes to our aid by administering the Anointing of the Sick, a sacrament that offers consolation to those who are ill, and to their loved ones.
A sacrament with a communitarian dimension Pope Francis’s invitation to the entire Church to pray for this is a way of making visible that the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick is by its nature communitarian and relational. “In times of pain and illness, it is always good to know t.
