Catholic Prayer: Sickness and Healing
Description:
The French of Louisiana continue to practice many of their country's customs here in the United States. When a family member becomes sick, the French response is to prayerfully beg the intercession of the Blessed Mother and other saints.
Prayer:
In cases of serious illness, children are promised to Saints by their mothers. If St. Ann will intercede, the child will be hers. Later when the child recovers, she will carry the Saint's colors in shoulder straps or cords until she is fully grown.
Sickness brings families closer. Neighboring families and relatives will remain entire days and nights by the bedside of the sick and dying. The beads are recited at certain intervals. In the second part of the Hail Mary, special words are substituted for the benefit of the sick person. Instead of the customary words "Priez pour nous, pecheurs, maintenant et a l'heure de notre mort," they will say "Priez pour lui(elle), pecheur, maintenant et a l'heure de sa mort, pray for this sinner now and at the hour of his death."
Prayer Source: Your Home, A Church in Miniature by Compiled by The Family Life Bureau in the early 1950s, The Neumann Press, Long Prairie, Minnesota, 1994
