Prayers for Good Health

Aging

"Well, Lord, the day has come. In many ways I dreaded leaving my home, my security. And now I have to give up some of my privacy and life with other old people. Help me even now to accept these people as I find them--boring at times, stimulating, and excessively talkative. Help me remember that all these strange people are loved by you. Deliver me from being snappy at meals with people who are cranky -- they may be in pain. If someone wants to confide a problem, help me listen. And may I reach out to those when I feel the urge to strike out. As I leave my home, give me a sense of call, even as you called old Abraham and Sarah when they left their home on a new journey of faith. If I can love my neighbor there, then I have a mission."

Amen.

Fear of Death

"May Christ keep me ever young to the greater glory of God. For old age comes from Him, old age leads to Him, and old age will touch me only insofar as He wills. To be "young" means to be hopeful, energetic, smiling --- and clearsighted. May I accept death in whatever guise it may come to me in Christ, that is, within the process of the development of life. A smile --- inward and outward --- means facing with mildness and gentleness whatever befalls me. Jesus, grant me to serve You, to proclaim You, to glorify You, and to manifest You, to the very end through all the time that remains to me of life, and above all through my death. Lord Jesus, I commit to your care my last years, and my death; do not let them impair or spoil the work I have so dreamed of achieving for You."

Amen.