While anyone can get it, the elderly are particularly vulnerable to the coronavirus. They’ve been asked to stay at home to avoid the risk of infection. During this period of confinement, isolated from their loved ones, they can pray and place themselves in God’s hands.
“When God permits us to suffer because of illness, loneliness, or other reasons associated with old age, he always gives us the grace and strength to unite ourselves with greater love to the sacrifice of his Son and to share ever more fully in his plan of salvation,” wrote St. John Paul II in his Letter to the Elderly on October 1, 1999.
“Let us be convinced of this: he is our Father, a Father rich in love and mercy!” added the Holy Father, who, during his lifetime, never hid his own agedness and indeed often referred to it.
Here is his prayer for the elderly to place themselves in God’s merciful care. It’s a prayer seniors might wish to recite as COVID-19 continues its spread throughout the world.
Lord, You gave me the priceless gift of life, and since my birth,You have not ceased to fill me with Your graces and Your infinite love.During all these years, great joys, trials, successes,failures, setbacks, and grief have been intermingled, as happens to everyone.With Your grace and Your help,I was able to overcome these obstacles and move towards You.Today, I feel rich with my experiencesand in the great consolation of having been the object of your Love.My soul sings its gratitude to You.Today, while I am still in possession of my faculties,I offer You, in advance, my acceptance of Your holy will,and from now on I wish that if one or another of these trials should happen to me,it might serve Your glory and the salvation of souls.Amen.
Anna Askhova
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And today we celebrate...