top of page
Writer's pictureProfiles in Catholicism
Jun 28, 20185 min read

HEALTH CHALLENGES Leprosy

Updated: Dec 23, 2023

Prayers


A prayer for those suffering from leprosy

“From Isolation to Community”

In the history of salvation, Lord, there were moments when illness Signified your displeasure – but there were moments, too, when an Illness was an opportunity for people of faith to ask for your help, Freely given, giving rise to thanksgiving and praise and the Knowledge that Israel was where your presence was signposted, Magnified and announced to the nations of the world, just as you Chose a heart under which to be conceived, making, literally, a holy Woman a place to begin again the beginning of entering our history.

As you walked among us, Lord, coming out of the family life in which You grew and saw and understood our needs and how to speak to us, Grasping the words and signs, the signs that opened upon the words And the words which opened up the signs – you healed, time and Time again, all who came to you asking, again and again, to help our Helplessness that prompts you to take us beyond the frontier of our Own efforts to the door of eternal life, drawing us into faith through Love of loving to heal us beyond the ills which bring us to our knees.

Now we know, Lord, more and more of us than ever before, the Loneliness and isolation of illness, blighting family life, friendships, Company, work and the willingness and ability to go out to others, Challenging us to draw upon you in new ways, to be present, to be in Contact, to be in the presence of each other, drawing back into life Those drawn to death, abandoned, alone, unspeakably treated, left in Silence and still, still we need to hear the cry that arises out of the Reports, telling of all the people pinned, mercilessly, to greedy gains.

Oh how deeply, Lord, you understand how the heart is hidden and has To be opened by a surgical word, a word unlike any other word, a Word, or a word-event, speaking to us from the past’s account of your Passing and, like an opening crack, bringing more light than can be Contained by one life and spilling, ever so liberally, upon one and Countless more, calling us out of our own shelters to see and to act, With you, for others, innumerable others, bringing your healing Again and again, to this generation’s diseases and contagious silence.

Bring us, Lord, again and again, into the company of your Church, Again and again, to show us, again and again, the face of your Father’s love, so obscured by disfiguring sins that often we cannot See where you are or who can make you present – but we believe that the Church is for the undoing of sinners, turning us into saints, saving Us from our self-seeking and that you are bringing a new beginning Of openness and honesty, healing and hope and that her witness is Welcome, hope, wonder and joy over the God who loves loving us!

Inspire us, Lord, in all the ways that your grace can run through the Natural world, connecting and leaping, rising up and suffusing us and, Through us, throughout all the amazing gifts you give to bring Inventiveness, imagination, creativity, to all whom we care for, to all That we do, to all that we seek to bring about for the good of all, especially for the good of the poor, the disabled, the disadvantaged, The stranded, the stuck, the sinking, those lost in camps or hidden in Dumps and dreadful pits, that the light of your love be with us all.


Interviews

Medical Journal Articles

General Articles/Commentaries


Film Reviews and Commentaries

  • Damien Commentary by Independent Catholic News


Videos


The Happy City - Leper Colony Documentary Educational Video


Recent Posts

See All

Covid-19

Coronavirus Topics for Profiles in Catholicism

bottom of page