Devotions For The Sick.
Instruction.
The state of sickness and sufferings is to be regarded as a fatherly visitation, whereby God knocks at the door of our hearts, to put us in mind of our mortality. It is a call from heaven, a timely warning to prepare for eternity, by spending the remainder of our life in the love and service of our Creator. It is the touchstone of patience, the school, or rather the harvest of penance, resignation, and every Christian virtue. It is the test of our love, by which we may judge whether we acquit ourselves of duties that are agreeable to nature, in conformity to the will of God, or only do them because they are agreeable to our own will. We know not what we are until we are tried. It costs us nothing to say, "We love thee, O God, above all things;" or to show the courage of martyrs at a distance, when we have nothing to cross or thwart our inclinations; but that love is sincere which stands the proof.
If we loved God sincerely, we would on all occasions embrace, desire, and find no happiness but in the accomplishment of his holy will. We would be prepared to bear whatever crosses and calamities he is pleased to send us, with a patient resignation. We would rejoice in them as the greatest blessings, and the sources of immortal crowns. We would regard them as precious talents, to be improved by the increase of our love and affection for God, and the exercise of the most heroic virtues of self-denial, patience, humility, &c.
To be dejected and impatient under sickness and trials, to indulge murmurs and complaints, to repine and call ourselves wretched and unhappy, &c, are signs that an inordinate self-love reigns in our hearts, and that we seek our own inclinations more than the will of God, who has bequeathed the cross to his elect, as their portion and inheritance in this world. It is in vain that we take the name of Christians, or pretend to follow Christ, unless we also carry our cross after his example. It is in vain for us to expect to be glorified with Jesus, unless we also suffer with Jesus. He sacrificed himself for us on the cross, that he might unite us, by it, eternally to himself. We cannot arrive at heaven by any other road. If we courageously embrace our cross, God will be our comfort and support, as he was the comfort and support of the holy martyrs under the most severe trials. He will not forsake us, unless we first forsake him by sin.
Too nice and anxious a care of health, is also an evident sign of inordinate self-love, and hatred of mortification. Nevertheless, as a man is not master of his own life or health, he is bound to take a moderate and reasonable care not to throw either of them away, nor neglect the essential prescriptions of physicians in the simple and ordinary remedies and succours of medicine. But he who trusts more in the art of physicians than in the Lord, deserves to be disappointed, like Asa, king of Juda, who became the victim of death, because he placed more confidence in his physicians than in God. Wherefore a Christian in his sickness should, in the first place, consider God as his chief physician, make his peace with him, and seek the health of his soul, by having recourse to the holy sacraments in due time, whilst he is in a condition to receive them with the proper dispositions. If he be in debt, or has any restitution or satisfaction to make, he should take care to have these obligations discharged to the best of his power. He should settle his temporal affairs without delay, that he may wholly apply his thoughts afterwards, without any disturbance, to the care of his immortal soul. He ought to beg of God to extinguish in him all self-love, and to dispose of him as he pleases. He ought to excite in his soul devout acts of faith, hope, charity, contrition, patience, resignation, &c. He should endeavour to sanctify his sufferings, by receiving them from the hand of God, by bearing them in the spirit of penance, by offering them in satisfaction for his sins, and by uniting them with the sufferings of his blessed Saviour and Redeemer, Jesus Christ.—"Omnia si pardas, animam servare memento." "Although you should lose everything else, be careful to save your soul."
A Prayer In The Beginning Of Sickness.
O my God, I accept this sickness with which thou art pleased to visit me, as a favour from, thy heavenly hand. I accept all its circumstances and consequences, in satisfaction for my sins. Thou hast given me health and strength, O Lord, and thou hast taken them away: may thy holy name, O Lord, be blessed for ever. I bow down my whole soul to adore thee in all thy appointments. I resign myself entirely into the hands of thy providence, and acknowledge that thou dost treat me with too much indulgence. I know I deserve greater evils than those I now endure, and that I merit, by my sins, pains infinitely greater than even the pains of hell, where I would long since have been, had not thy pure mercy interposed between my soul and thy justice. Alas! how many are now suffering there for crimes less than mine? My pains are nothing in comparison to theirs. I have no reason to complain. O may thy holy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. I offer myself, with an entire submission, to suffer whatever thou pleasest, as long as thou pleasest, and in what manner thou pleasest. May this sickness be to the honour of thy holy name, and to the good of my soul. But, O Lord, have regard to my weakness, and deal not with me according to my sins; but according to the multitude of thy tender mercies have compassion on me. Confirm my soul with strength from above, that I may be patient under all uneasiness, pain, disquietudes, and difficulties of my illness. Grant that I may cheerfully submit to them, as a just punishment of my manifold offences, and duly offer them in conjunction with the sufferings and death of my blessed Redeemer on the cross, through whose merits I look for mercy, and hope to possess eternal life. Have pity on me, O most loving father! clothe me with thy grace, and receive me into the arms of thy mercy. Create a clean heart within me, O God, and renew an upright spirit within my bowels; cast out from thence whatever profanes or defiles thy temple; destroy and root out what is displeasing to thee, and lay in me the foundation of a new life, either for this world or the world to come. I am heartily sorry that I ever offended thy infinite goodness, in thought, word, deed, or omission. I most humbly implore thy pardon for all my sins, I now propose not to offend thee any more, and to avoid every thing that may be to me an occasion of sin. I resolve to make restitution and satisfaction for the injuries I have committed. For the love of thee, I sincerely forgive all those who have injured me or done me wrong; I beseech thee to pardon them and grant them the same blessing that I desire for my own soul. With the utmost humility I also heartily beg pardon of all those to whom I have given any offence, whether by ill example, by words, deeds, or any other way, deliberately or unknowingly. Thou seest, O Lord, how frail I am, and that I am nothing but dust and ashes; preserve me from all temptations, and be thou my defence against all the assaults of the evil spirit, that in this sickness I may no way offend thee: and if this is to be my last, I beg of thee so to direct me by thy grace, that I may not neglect the necessary means of salvation, nor be deprived of any of those powerful helps which thou hast in thy mercy ordained for the good of my soul. Prepare it, O Lord, for its passage into eternity; that being perfectly cleansed from all my iniquities, I may be admitted one day into the kingdom of thy glory, there to love and praise thee for ever, in the company of thy blessed angels and saints. Amen.
"Lord, thy thorns are my roses, and thy suffering my paradise."
St. Felix.
"Tears of devotion are sweeter than the joys of theatres."
St. Augustine.