Anointing of the sick gives comfort, calm and a distinct calling for Lake Ozark parishioners
Just as sacred anointings in the Old Testament set people apart as priests, prophets and kings, the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick bestows a gift and a distinct vocation on the people who receive it.
That gift is meant to be shared with everyone in the Church.
“This anointing today is setting YOU aside for a sacred purpose,” Father Michael Penn, pastor of Our Lady of the Lake Parish in Lake Ozark, told the parishioners seated near the front of church.
“And the purpose is this: to unite yourselves in a more special and in a more perfect way with the suffering, the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ,” he said.
Fr. Penn and Monsignor Michael Flanagan, senior priest in residence at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Columbia, administered the communal Anointing of the Sick during the 10 a.m. Sunday Mass in Our Lady of the Lake Church on Feb. 12.
It was the local observance of the Church’s 31st annual World Day of the Sick.
People with serious physical or mental illness, who are elderly, or who are preparing for serious surgery were invited to attend the Mass and receive the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick.
Members of the Our Lady of the Lake Knights of Columbus council escorted the people who were to receive the Sacrament to pews reserved near the front of the church.
For one and for all
Anointing of the Sick is one of the Seven Sacraments, which are outward signs instituted by Christ that give grace and bring about what they symbolize.
“The Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick has as its purpose the conferral of a special grace on the Christian experiencing the difficulties inherent in the condition of grave illness or old age,” states the Catechism of the Catholic Church (#1527).
Through this sacrament, God gives the sick person grace and strength to bear the illness or infirmity.
Fr. Penn and Msgr. Flanagan have both weathered life-threatening illnesses and received the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick.
“All of us, my brothers and sisters, as Christians are called to participate in the passion and in the suffering of Jesus,” Fr. Penn pointed out in his homily.
“But you, this morning, are receiving a special call,” he said to those who were about to be anointed.
He emphasized that Anointing of the Sick is not just intended to give comfort of body and spirit to people with serious illness or to help those who are preparing for death.
“When you receive this Sacrament, because you are seriously sick, you are set aside to experience the healing love and comfort of God, the Father, as Jesus experienced during his passion and during his death,” Fr. Penn stated.
“Through the power of this holy anointing, God calls us at this moment to be especially one with him,” the priest continued. “May it be so by our responding to God’s call to holiness.”
“Raise you up”
Fr. Penn said sharing in the joy and the gift of the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick is an occasion for the entire parish to call upon the name of Christ, the Divine Physician.
“We pray that the Lord will heal our brokenness, that the Lord will heal our sinfulness and that the Lord will restore us to the original dignity that we received at baptism,” he stated.
He invited everyone present to join in praying for all who are sick and for all who devote themselves to taking care of them.
“Bless all gathered here for this holy anointing and fill them with new hope and strength,” he prayed in the General Intercessions. “Relieve their pain. ... Free them from sin and do not let them give way to temptation. ... Sustain all the sick with your power. ... Assist all who care for the sick. ... Give life and health to our brothers and sisters on whom we lay our hands in your name.”
Msgr. Flanagan and Fr. Penn then went out into the congregation, imposing hands on the heads of persons approaching the sacrament, and praying silently over them.
The priests then anointed each person’s hands and head and prayed: “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.”
They did so using the Oil of the Sick, which is pure olive oil that was blessed by Bishop W. Shawn McKnight at the Chrism Mass before Easter last year.
Our Lady of the Lake Parish Music Director Stephen Jannetti played “You Are the Healing” by Scott Soper as a quiet piano spiritual, while the prayers crisscrossed the nave of the church.
“A special gift”
After having received the anointing, Fr. Penn prayed: “Father in heaven, through this holy anointing, grant our sisters and brothers comfort in their suffering and infirmity. When they are afraid, give them courage. When afflicted, give them patience. When dejected, afford them hope. And when alone, assure them of the support of your holy people.”
The priest addressed those who had just been anointed and received the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist.
“You, my brothers and sisters, have been given a special gift,” he told them. “You, my brothers and sisters ARE a special gift. You, my brothers and sisters, through the grace of our Lord Jesus, are called to bestow this special grace upon all of us.”
“Beautiful calm”
After Mass, Our Lady of the Lake Parishioner Barbara Sefcik reflected on the sacramental gift she had just experienced.
“I’m feeling so much calm, so much acceptance of what the Lord has in store for me,” she stated.
Mrs. Sefcik said she her husband, Rick, have weathered some serious health battles, but they’ve never felt alone.
“God has been with me every moment,” she said. “And I know that whatever’s coming, he’ll be there, too.”
With such an understanding comes peace that only God can give.
“It’s a beautiful calm,” she said. “I wish everyone could experience the same.”
She suggested that people who are not yet eligible to receive the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick should look prayerfully ahead to the day when they are.
“Pray that when that time comes, you’ll be just as excited as we were today, just as calm and just looking to the future with joy,” she said.
“Christ’s healing touch”
Pope St. John Paul II established the World Day of the Sick as an annual observance in 1992, to coincide with the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes.
The Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick was instituted by Christ during His ministry on earth. He healed the suffering out of compassion and as a foreshadowing of the Kingdom of God and his own victory over all sin and death through his passion, death and resurrection (Catechism of the Catholic Church, #1505).
St. James, in his epistle, wrote: “Is any among you sick? Let him call for the priests of the Church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven” (James 5:14-15).
