If we are to truly imitate Christ, then we must have a concern for the ill and infirm. This collection of Catholic prayers for the sick is comprised traditional prayers, original prayers, and Sacred scripture.
Prayer for the Sick
O, Jesus, during your earthly ministry, you brought healing to those who had faith in you. In that same spirit, we come to you now to ask for your mercy on our beloved ill.
Lord, we pray grant them comfort and healing in accord with your Will. We ask that through this trial we may be more deeply united with you, who, though Lord of all, also took on human weakness and infirmity. You have destroyed the power of death by your suffering on the Cross. So too we offer our suffering for the healing of souls.
Lord, we pray grant us strength and grace to bear our present crosses with love and faith, so that we may rise with you on the last day.
Amen.
Prayers for the sick being offered to St. Peregrine. (Source)
Prayer to St. Peregrine for Healing From Cancer
O great St. Peregrine, you have been called “The Mighty,” “The Wonder-Worker,” because of the numerous miracles which you have obtained from God for those who have had recourse to you. For so many years you bore in your own flesh this cancerous disease that destroys the very fiber of our being, and who had recourse to the source of all grace when the power of man could do no more. You were favored with the vision of Jesus coming down from His Cross to heal your affliction. Ask of God and Our Lady, the cure of the sick whom we entrust to you.
(Pause here and silently recall the names of those for whom you are praying)
Aided in this way by your powerful intercession, we shall sing to God, now and for all eternity, a song of gratitude for His great goodness and mercy.
Amen.
Order of Blessing for the Sick
P: Our help is in the name of the Lord.
R: Who made heaven and earth.
P: A reading from Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians:
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and God of all encouragement, who encourages us in our every affliction, so that we may be able to encourage those who are in any affliction with the encouragement with which we ourselves are encouraged by God.”
P: The word of the Lord.
R: Thanks be to God.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and God of all encouragement, who encourages us in our every affliction, so that we may be able to encourage those who are in any affliction with the encouragement with which we ourselves are encouraged by God.
P: A reading from the Gospel according to Matthew.
R. Glory to you, O, Lord.
“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”
P: The Gospel of the Lord.
R: Praise to You, Lord, Jesus Christ.
(If led by a Priest or Deacon, they may lay their hands on the person being being blessed.
Lay people (i.e. – Not a priest or deacon) may trace the sign of the Cross with their thumb on the forehead of the person being blessed instead.)
P: Lord and Father, almighty and eternal God, by your blessing you give us strength and support in our frailty: turn with kindness toward your servant, [Name of Person].
Free him/her from all illness and restore him/her to health, so that in the sure knowledge of your goodness he/she will gratefully bless your holy name.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
R: Amen.
Scripture Readings for the Sick
The Bible is rich with stories of miraculous healing and words of profound comfort. Use these readings to enrich and inform your prayers for the sick.
From Psalm 103
Bless the Lord, my soul;
all my being, bless his holy name!
Bless the Lord, my soul;
and do not forget all his gifts,
Who pardons all your sins,
and heals all your ills,
Who redeems your life from the pit,
and crowns you with mercy and compassion,
Who fills your days with good things,
so your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
From Psalm 34
The righteous cry out, the Lord hears
and he rescues them from all their afflictions.
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted,
saves those whose spirit is crushed.
Many are the troubles of the righteous,
but the Lord delivers him from them all.
He watches over all his bones;
not one of them shall be broken.
The Healing of the Paralytic In the Gospel According to Luke
One day as Jesus was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem, and the power of the Lord was with him for healing. And some men brought on a stretcher a man who was paralyzed; they were trying to bring him in and set [him] in his presence. But not finding a way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on the stretcher through the tiles into the middle in front of Jesus.
When he saw their faith, he said, “As for you, your sins are forgiven.”
Then the scribes and Pharisees began to ask themselves, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who but God alone can forgive sins?”
Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them in reply, “What are you thinking in your hearts?
Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the man who was paralyzed, “I say to you, rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home.”
He stood up immediately before them, picked up what he had been lying on, and went home, glorifying God. Then astonishment seized them all and they glorified God, and, struck with awe, they said, “We have seen incredible things today.”
