WORSHIP MINISTRY

Anointing of the Sick

The Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick is for healing, physical and emotional healing.    

The Church's understanding arises out of reflection on the great care that Jesus showed the sick.   Therefore, the Church celebrates Anointing of the Sick for four reasons:

1. to offer the grace of the Holy Spirit which heals and saves the sick person in body and in spirit,
2. to pray that the sick person will have the special help of God's grace in the anxiety that sickness creates,  
3. to open the opportunity for forgiveness and Christian penance which may be offered through physical illness, and
4. to signify our solidarity as Church with the sick person who may be tempted to brokenness of spirit or lack of trust in God because of their struggle with illness.

Who Ought to Receive the Sacrament

The Church offers the sacrament for those of the Christian faithful who are seriously ill.   Anyone whose health is seriously impaired should receive the sacrament, whether that illness be psychological, emotional, physical, or a combination.             

The sacrament may not be given indiscriminately, however.   It would definitely be inappropriate to receive the sacrament for a passing illness, like the flu.

Anointing is not for the dying. It is for the ill. Many Catholic people still tend to think the Church does something we commonly called "last rites," what we used to call Extreme Unction.   In fact, however, there is no longer in the Church any such sacrament as "last rites."