CTK Marks World Day of the Sick with Healing Service
In celebration of the World Day of the Sick, February 11, Fr. Manny Flores officiated the 6 pm mass at the main church and followed this up with the healing service immediately after. Parishioners brought their sick relatives and friends for healing of body, mind, and spirit. The World Day of the Sick also coincided with the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes.
In his introduction, Fr. Manny implored the faithful to intone, ‘Jesus, Son of Mary, have pity on us.’
Then, painstakingly, Fr. Manny whispered to each of the parishioners in the queue, then prayed over them. He also advised those who had already received the healing prayers to go to the altar to pray for a short while before leaving the church. As with the previous years, the event was organized by the Life in the Spirit Prayer Community and Healing Ministry. And as usual, the EMHCs were on hand just in case there were parishioners who would fall backwards or pass out, i.e., ‘slain in the spirit’.
Meanwhile, in Kolkata, India, in his message for the 27th World Day of the Sick, Pope Francis urged believers to promote a culture of generosity, noting that the joy of generous giving is a barometer of the health of a Christian.
‘Those who care for the sick and give of themselves with generosity and straightforward love – like St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta – are amongst the Church’s most credible evangelizers,’ he said.
In his message for the World Day of the Sick, celebrated on February 11, the Pope focused on Jesus’s words to the Apostles: ‘You received without payment; give without payment’ (Mt 10:8). Just as life is a gift from God, he said, and cannot be reduced to a personal possession or private property, he said that ‘caring for the sick requires professionalism, tenderness, straightforward and simple gestures freely given, like a caress that makes others feel loved’. He added, ‘Your gift is much more than simply giving presents; it involves the giving of oneself and entails the desire to build a relationship. Gift is a reflection of God’s love, which culminates in the Incarnation of the Son and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.’
Established in 1993 by Pope Saint John Paul II on the Feast Day of Our Lady of Lourdes, a different city is chosen each year to host the World Day of the Sick. This year the choice was Calcutta in India and Pope Francis highlighted the figure of Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta as a model of charity who made God’s love for the poor and sick visible. ‘In all aspects of her life’, he said, ‘she was a generous dispenser of divine mercy, making herself available for everyone through her welcome and defence of human life, of those unborn and those abandoned and discarded. She bowed down before those who were spent, left to die on the side of the road, seeing in them their God-given dignity’. The Pope upheld her further saying that ‘she made her voice heard before the powers of this world, so that they might recognize their guilt for the crime of poverty they created’.
Describing her mission to the urban and existential peripheries as an eloquent witness to God’s closeness to the poorest of the poor, the Pope said ‘Saint Mother Teresa helps us understand that our only criterion of action must be selfless love for every human being, without distinction of language, culture, ethnicity or religion’.
Pope Francis’s message also praised the generosity of so many volunteers who, he said, are so important in health care and who eloquently embody the spirituality of the Good Samaritan. He thanked the many associations run by volunteers that are committed to particular fields of health care including those who promote the rights of the sick, raise awareness and encourage prevention. Noting that countless persons who are ill, alone, elderly or frail in mind or body benefit from these services, he urged them to continue to be a sign of the Church’s presence in a secularized world: ‘Volunteer work passes on values, behaviours and ways of living born of a deep desire to be generous. It is also a means of making health care more humane.’ The Pope also thanked Catholic healthcare institutions for their service, saying they are called ‘to give an example of self-giving, generosity and solidarity and he warned them against the trap of simply running a business’.
Health, he said, ‘is relational, dependent on interaction with others, and requiring trust, friendship and solidarity. It is a treasure that can be enjoyed fully only when it is shared. The joy of generous giving is a barometer of the health of a Christian’. Finally Pope Francis urged everyone ‘at every level, to promote the culture of generosity and of gift, which is indispensable for overcoming the culture of profit and waste’.
Pope John Paul II initiated the World Day of the Sick in 1992 to encourage people to pray for those who suffer from illness and for their caregivers. The Pope himself had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s a year before, in 1991, and it is considered that his own illness was impetus for his designation of this special day.
The CTK healing service lasted past 9 pm, given the huge throng of people wishing to be ‘healed’.
