Brethren, during the last couple of days I put together a compilation of prayers to pray while sick or suffering, whether for oneself or for others. The compilation are found in a single PDF file which I now share with you. What follows is the link and the Introduction to the compilation.
Link to Prayers in Sickness and Suffering
Brothers and sisters: many times when we are sick or when others are sick and we want to pray either for us or for them we find ourselves are a loss for words. Sometimes we question if it is proper to ask healing from God and if it is, we wonder what are the proper attitudes and the proper words. This little booklet aim to alleviate those anxieties.
The following is a collection of prayers I compiled from multiple sources across the Internet. In my opinion, they will readily give you a direct insight on the right words and attitudes needed to ask for healing or for resignation in suffering.
Great introspection and spiritual discernment are required to determine between one's – or someone's – call in the face of illness. Am I called to be healed or am I called to coredemptive suffering with Christ? What is the call of the person for whom we are praying? Many saints were presented with the choice between the two only to choose suffering for the sake of other souls. Consulting with one's spiritual director – preferably a holy, prudent priest or a more mature Christian not in holy orders, whether religious or lay, male or female – is necessary to ascertain God's will for us. The "Word of Faith"
prayers in Chapter IV must be executed with great prudence and understanding of the value of suffering in the life of the Christian.
So that no one misunderstands this truth, I added the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's Instruction on Prayers for Healing on the first appendix to this compilation. It behooves those willing to pray the "Word of Faith" prayers to read this instruction first, as well as all of those whose ministry include praying for the sick and infirm or if you are sick or infirm yourself. We must always remember that Catholics Christians are not "faith healers" but men and women suffused with the Love of Christ with a keen understanding of the value of co-suffering with Christ for the salvation of others.
Finally, it is imperative for us not to forget that the ordinary manner in which the Church prays for the spiritual and bodily healing of a person is through the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick. This great sacrament is often misunderstood as the sacrament of the dying when it is in fact, the sacrament of the sick and the infirm. I have included a second appendix, canonically approved by the Bishop of San Diego, explaining the nature, matter, form, and finality of the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick. Our prayers for ourselves and for others must ignite in us the desire to receive this Sacrament and/or to dispose those in our care to receive it. Prayers for healing may also occur in the intercessions made in the daily prayers of the Liturgy of the Hours and of Holy Mass.
To visit the sick is one of the corporal works of mercy; to comfort the sorrowful is one of the spiritual works of mercy. May this humble compilation help you do both. Let us go forth in Jesus Name, Amen.