I recently came across a beautiful prayer composed by St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta entitled, Jesus, My Patient, which was included on the back of a funeral program of a former nurse, Martha Rooney. The prayer has been used by her Sisters of Charity in their care for the sick, poor, and dying.

It’s a reflection on Jesus’ identification with the sick and other people in need found in Matthew 25: 31 – 40, summed up by verse 40:

“Whatever you did for the least of my brothers and sisters you did for me.”

Feel free to pass this prayer along to someone you know who cares for the sick, the poor, the forgotten and the marginalized. They may never look at the person they tend to the same again!

JESUS, MY PATIENT

Dearest Lord, may I see you today and every day in the person of your sick, and, whilst nursing them, minister unto you.

Though you hide yourself behind the unattractive disguise of the irritable, the exacting, the unreasonable, may I still recognize you, and say: "Jesus, my patient, how sweet it is to serve you."

Lord, give me this seeing faith, then my work will never be monotonous. I will ever find joy in humoring the fancies and gratifying the wishes of all poor sufferers.

O beloved sick, how doubly dear you are to me, when you personify Christ; and what a privilege is mine to be allowed to tend you.

Sweetest Lord, make me appreciative of the dignity of my high vocation, and its many responsibilities. Never permit me to disgrace it by giving way to coldness, unkindness, or impatience.

And O God, while you are Jesus, my patient, deign also to be to me a patient Jesus, bearing with my faults, looking only to my intention, which is to love and serve you in the person of each of your sick.

Lord, increase my faith, bless my efforts and work, now and forevermore. Amen.

God bless you!

Fr. Bob

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