HEALTH CHALLENGES HIV/AIDS

Updated: May 5

Please help my friend Francis Otieno care for children affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa. He desperately needs your donations.

Prayers

Prayer for World AIDS Day

World AIDS Day takes place on the 1st of December each year. It is an opportunity for people worldwide, and especially the men

and women in Catholic health ministry who have served those living with HIV/AIDS, to unite in the fight against HIV, to continue

to show support for people living with HIV and to commemorate those who have died from an AIDS-related illness. Founded in 1988,

World AIDS Day was the first ever global health day.

And so we pray …

God of Promise, today we are mindful of our sisters and brothers suffering with HIV and AIDS. We ask your healing presence on

millions of people living with the disease today; particularly the children who are infected or who have been orphaned by the

disease. Make of us a safe haven for those who are abandoned, discriminated against and rejected on account of their illness.

Inspire us to speak out for a just distribution of health care and medical aid in this country and for generosity in sharing our resources with those struggling under the weight of this epidemic overseas

As we begin our Advent celebration of waiting in hope for the birth of your Son, let us remember those across the world who wait

in hope for a cure. Amen.

by The Catholic Health Association

A Prayer for the Children Affected by the HIV/AIDS Pandemic in Kenya

Dear God of healing and hope,

The severe children's epidemic in Kenya that we ask you to help. Many times we know how you’d like us to react but our own discomforts and uneasiness cloud your vision for us. We know you to be a welcoming God perfectly exemplified in the person of Jesus, the one we call Christ One who extends grace to all people. May Mother Mary guide us in our plan to help all children in need.

O God, too often this is the case when we talk about HIV and AIDS. We’d rather not think about how it was contracted, but at the same time that is all we can think about. Too often we get caught up in a spirit of retributive justice, rather than responding out of the grace that was first extended to us.

Help us, Gracious One, to truly follow the ways of the One who healed without question, even on the Sabbath, instead of perpetuating a culture of “unclean” lepers. And challenge us to accept that our passing judgment against segments of our society contribute to new HIV infections rather than reducing them. Open our eyes—give us 20/20 vision—so that we may see that racism, homophobia, bi-phobia, and trans-phobia, in addition to a general reluctance to think about children becoming prey to the epidemic of HIV-AIDS in the continuing rise of HIV-infection rates as the evil they are and be delivered from them.

May your Holy Spirit comfort those children who are hurting and dying. Hold them in your loving embrace and in your healing and mercy, Amen.

In Christ our Lord,

Chris Manion

Interviews