caring for the sick

¹³Is any of you sad? Let him pray. Is he even-tempered? Let him sing psalms. ¹⁴Is anyone ill among you? Let him bring in the priests of the Church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. ¹⁵And a prayer of faith will save the infirm, and the Lord will alleviate him. And if he has sins, these will be forgiven him.

³¹But when the Son of man will have arrived in his majesty, and all the Angels with him, then he will sit upon the seat of his majesty. ³²And all the nations shall be gathered together before him. And he shall separate them from one another, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. ³³And he shall station the sheep, indeed, on his right, but the goats on his left. ³⁴Then the King shall say to those who will be on his right: ‘Come, you blessed of my Father. Possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. ³⁵For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in; ³⁶naked, and you covered me; sick, and you visited me; I was in prison, and you came to me.’

³You consumed the milk, and you covered yourselves with the wool, and you killed what was fattened. But my flock you did not feed. ⁴What was weak, you have not strengthened, and what was sick, you have not healed. What was broken, you have not bound, and what was cast aside, you have not led back again, and what was lost, you have not sought. Instead, you ruled over them with severity and with power.

⁴⁴Then they will also answer him, saying: ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to you?’

²Most beloved, concerning everything, I make it my prayer that you may benefit by advancing and succeeding in whatever may be to the benefit of your soul.

¹⁷For I will close up your scar, and I will heal you of your wounds, says the Lord. For they have called you an outcast, O Zion: ‘This is she who has no one asking for her.’ ”

¹⁶I will seek what had been lost. And I will lead back again what had been cast aside. And I will bind up what had been broken. And I will strengthen what had been infirm. And I will preserve what was fat and strong. And I will feed them on judgment.

¹The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for the Lord has anointed me. He has sent me to bring good news to the meek, so as to heal the contrite of heart, to preach leniency to captives and release to the confined, ²and so to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vindication of our God: to console all who are mourning,

¹⁷Whoever possesses the goods of this world, and sees his brother to be in need, and yet closes his heart to him: in what way does the love of God abide in him?

³¹And exactly as you would want people to treat you, treat them also the same.

³O Lord my God, I have cried out to you, and you have healed me.