Prayer for the XXI World Day of the Sick

(Vatican Radio) The solemn celebration of the XXI World Day of the Sick will be held at the Marian Shrine of Altötting, Germany, and the theme will be “Go and do likewise” (Lk 10:37): The Good Samaritan: do good to those who suffer and do good through your own suffering.

Ahead of the main celebrations the prayer for the World Day has been published in several languages including English:


Almighty and eternal God,
you are our foundation and our support,
you are the hope that never abandons us,
and the Love that gives itself on the Cross and the Resurrection of Jesus.
Make your Face shine on all sick people,
the suffering and the dying.
Be merciful with them.
Still send Good Samaritans
who will serve and heal sick, suffering and dying people,
and help the weakest, disinterestedly.

Holy Mary, Mother of God,
today we turn to you and we pray to you:
You know the pain of the defenceless,
when suffering cannot be distanced.
Through your being at the foot of the cross and
your suffering as a mother,
you became for us the salvation of the sick.
Through your intercession, may we have the strength and the courage
to look at the crucified Christ,
and may we bear our sufferings with courage,
entrusting ourselves to him.

God, full of goodness, Our Father.
we thank you for the very many exemplary witnesses
who trod a pathway of tribulation,
and whom you have given to us as our intercessors.
We thank you for St. Anna Schäffer,
who was harshly afflicted from an early age,
being confined to bed because of a grave accident.
We turn to you, St. Anna Schäffer:
By striving for an intimate
friendship with Jesus Christ who was crucified and rose again,
you managed not only to bear your suffering
but also to sacrifice yourself with him for
other suffering people, above all for those
who felt they had no hope.
Through your intercession help us, as well,
to embrace our lives even if they are afflicted by pain,
to look with trust to the crucified Christ,
and to tread our pathway in the certainty
that the love of Christ is stronger than any pain,
stronger than evil, and stronger than death.



We thank you for the Blessed Pope John Paul II.
He was always at the side of the sick,
intrepid defender of human life.
We turn to you Blessed Pope John Paul II:
Let it be that through prayer we may obtain the strength of faith,
and the certainty that we will not become lost,
and that with the whole of our lives and our sufferings
we will be safe in the hands and heart of God.
Give us courage through the example you gave of dying,
in the last hours of our lives as well.

We also thank you for the Blessed Mother Theresa of Calcutta,
a true angel in the dark nights of the marginalised and the dying.
We turn to you Blessed Mother Theresa,
who trusting in the infinite love of Jesus Christ and
in his sacrifice of death on the cross, always ensured
that the light of this love of his penetrated the darkness of suffering.
Obtain for us the faith and the awareness that we can ourselves
become a light for other suffering people.
Let us be able to shine forth hope,
and let us, as well, recognise in our sick and suffering neighbour
the Face of our Lord and give to that person our ready help.

God, One and Triune,
we now place ourselves in your generous paternal hands.
We trust in your boundless love,
and you watch over us
on good days and difficult days,
in life and in death.
Through our pain, let our faith and our trust in you
be renewed so that all of the people of God can
experience the grace of redemption.
Now and forever.
Amen.