Mater Misericordiae

We'll say the calendar made us feel
at home when your parents ask

how we like the latest doctor. Hanging

on the lobby's wall above Peoples

and Cosmos, Mary held her arms open

in a gesture of welcome with a rosary

resting on her girlish, upturned wrists.

You pointed her out when they took you

for that day's blood draw and set

of unanswered questions. You knew

I'd like the mundane transgression

of Mary presiding over the secular

saeculorum of the place. Although

I've never loved the doves and roses,

the cherubs pinching the hem

of her blue robe, she kept my mind off

the results, the pills, the commercials

for antidepressants circling every half hour

on the closed circuit. After you vanished

into the back, I lifted the calendar from

its nail and thumbed through the other Marys:

a stylish Guadalupe radiating needles

for October, Michaelangelo's marble

framed in the corpse of Christ for March,

and a small woman marveling at her own

miraculous infant in December. Seeing her

going through it too, month after month

praising and lamenting no matter what

went on in the boxes beneath her,

helped for a minute. When I hung her back,

I noticed she'd been stuck in May

this whole summer. I flipped ahead

to August. Titian's assumption.

The mother of God drifts out of sight

in surprise, with the terrified apostles below.

--Joshua Jones, from Image magazine, no 107, pp. 79-80.

Image: Titian, Assumption of the Virgin, 1516-1518, altarpiece panel painting

Prayer in Infirmity

O most mighty and most merciful God,
who, though thou have taken me off of my feet ,
hast not taken me off of my foundation, which is thyself;
who, though thou have removed me from that upright form
in which I could stand and see thy throne, the heavens,
yet has not removed from me that light
by which I can lie and see thyself;
who though thou have weakened my bodily knees,
that they cannot bow to thee,
hast yet left me the knees of my heart,
which are bowed unto thee evermore;
as thou hast made this bed thine altar,
make me thy sacrifice,
and as thou make us thy son Jesus Christ the priest,
so make me his Deacon,
to minister to him
in a cheerful surrender of my body and soul
to thy pleasure,
by his hands.

-- John Donne, from Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions III (1624), from Glorious Companions: Five Centuries of Anglican Spirituality, 2002

Image: Window fromTrinity Episcopal Church, Tulsa OK.

Prayer for a Child Who is Ill

O Heavenly Father in whom we live and move and have our being, reach out in Your loving compassion and touch this child. 

Bless her and heal her so that she may grow and develop normally. 

Comfort her in her pain. 

Shine the light of Your face upon her and give her the peace that passes understanding. 

May she abide in Your love and care all her days. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord, Amen.




found here: https://connectusfund.org/16-good-episcopal-prayers-for-the-sick 

Prayer Before Surgery

 O God the Comfort of Sufferers, we ask that You bless Your servant with peace and calm as s/he is going through this operation. Give the surgeon and the surgical staff skill and wisdom. May the procedure successfully treat the problem, and may You bless Your servant with swift recovery and full healing. Great are You in might and power! Through Him, who is the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls, Jesus Christ, our Lord, Amen.

found here: https://connectusfund.org/16-good-episcopal-prayers-for-the-sick 

The Lilies

When I learned I might have cancer,
I bought fifteen white lilies. Easter was gone:
the trumpets were wilted, plants crooked with roots
bound in pots. I dug them into the garden,
knowing they would not bloom for another year.
All summer, the stalks stood like ramshackle posts
while I waited for results. By autumn, the stalks
had flopped down. More biopsies, laser incisions,
the cancer in my tongue a sprawling mass. Outside,
the earth remained bare, rhizomes shrunken
below the frost line. Spring shoots appeared
in bright green skins, and lilies bloomed
in July, their waxed trumpets pure white,
dusting gold pollen to the ground.
                                                                                                    This year,
tripled in number, they are popping up again. I wait,
a ceremony, for the lilies to open, for the serpentine length
of the garden to bloom in the shape of my tongue’s scar,
a white path with one end leading into brilliant air,
the other down the throat’s canyon, black
and unforgiving. I try to imagine
what could grow in such darkness. I am waiting
for the lilies to open.

--Dr. Karenne Wood (1960-2019), member of the Monacan Indian Nation, poet and anthropologist, from Markings on Earth, 2001

For Caregivers and Others in Support of the Sick

Compassionate God,

support and strengthen all those

who reach out in love, concern, and prayer 

for the sick and distressed. 

In their acts of compassion, 

may they know that they are your instruments. 

In their concerns and fears 

may they know your peace. 

In their prayer 

may they know your steadfast love. 

May they not grow weary or faint-hearted, 

for your mercy’s sake. Amen.

-- From "Ministry to the Sick," from Church Publishing

Prayer- In the Morning

This is another day, O Lord.

I know not what it will bring forth,

but make me ready, Lord, 

for whatever it may be. 

If I am to stand up,

help me to stand bravely. 

If I am to sit still, 

help me to sit quietly. 

If I am to lie low, 

help me to do it patiently.

And if I am to do nothing, 

let me do it gallantly. 

Make these words more than words, 

and give me the Spirit of Jesus. Amen.

-- The Book of Common Prayer, "Ministration to the Sick," p. 461, from Church Pension Group of The Episcopal Church

Psalm 71

1 In you, O Lord, I take refuge;
       let me never be ashamed.
2 In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me; 
       incline your ear to me and save me.
3 Be to me a rock of refuge, a scastle to keep me safe,
       for you are my crag and my stronghold.
4 Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked,
       from the grasp of the unjust and cruel.
5 For you, O Lord, are my hope,
       my confidence, O Lord, since I was young.
6 Upon you I have leaned from my birth;
     it was you who took me from my mother’s womb;
       my praise is continually of you.
7 I have been like a portent to many,
       but you are my strong refuge.
8 My mouth is filled with your praise,
       and with your glory all day long.
9 Do not cast me off in the time of old age;
       do not forsake me when my strength is spent.
10 For my enemies speak concerning me,
       and those who watch for my life consult together.
11 They say, “Pursue and seize that person
     whom God has forsaken,
       for there is no one to deliver.”
12 O God, do not be far from me;
       O my God, make haste to help me!
13 Let my accusers be put to shame and consumed;
       let those who seek to hurt me be covered with scorn and disgrace.
14 But I will hope continually,
       and will praise you yet more and more.
15 My mouth will tell of your righteous acts, of your deeds of salvation all day long,
       though their number is past my knowledge.
16 I will come praising the mighty deeds of the Lord God,
       I will praise your righteousness, yours alone.
17 O God, from my youth you have taught me,
       and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.
18 So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, 
       until I proclaim your might to all the generations to come.Your power 
19 and your righteousness, O God, reach the high heavens. 
       You who have done great things, O God, who is like you?
20 You who have made me see many troubles and calamities
     will revive me again;
       from the depths of the earth you will bring me up again.
21 You will increase my honor,
       and comfort me once again.
22 I will also praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, O my God;
       I will sing praises to you with the lyre, O Holy One of Israel.
23 My lips will shout for joy when I sing praises to you;
       my soul also, which you have rescued.
24 All day long my tongue will talk of your righteous help,
       for those who tried to do me harm have been put to shame, and disgraced.

Prayer for Difficult Treatment Choices

Jesus, at Gethsemane you toiled with terrifying choices. Be with me now as i struggle with a fearful choice of treatments which promise much discomfort and offer no guarantee of long-term good. Help me know that you will bless my choice to me, and, Good Savior, be my companion on the way.

Amen.

-- From Enriching Our Worship 2: Ministry with the Sick or Dying; Burial of a Child 


Photo: Detail from a door on the Passion Side of La Sagrada Familia, Barcelona

Blessing of the Sick

Our Lord Jesus Christ be with you to defend you,
with you to keep you,
before you to lead you,
beside you to guard you,
and above you to bless you.
AMEN.

God be your comfort and your strength;
God be your hope and your support;
God be your light and your way;
and the blessing of God,
Creator, Redeemer, and Giver of Life,
remain with you now and forever.
AMEN.

-- New Zealand Prayer Book, Ministry of Healing, p. 745.