Anointing of the Sick is the Sacrament of Healing that strengthens our faith, hope, and love for God when we are seriously ill, weakened by old age or dying. From the beginning of our roots as a community, the early Church understood the need for us to follow the example of Jesus to pray for the healing of the sick and to comfort the dying. The Catholic Church teaches that among the Seven Sacraments of God’s grace, it is the Anointing of the Sick that is especially intended to strengthen those who suffer from grave illness or are approaching death through illness or increasing age with a special grace.

In this sacrament, the priest will lay hands on the sick and pray over them in the name of the Church, asking that the Holy Spirit will strengthen the person to overcome the difficulties that are a part of serious illness or old age. It is a prayer for the grace that will lead the sick person to a healing of the spirit and, if God so wills, a healing of the body. The believer is then anointed with oil on the forehead and the hands. The person being anointed may also have celebrated Reconciliation, also a Sacrament of Healing, before he/she is anointed. When a person is very near death the Eucharist is offered as food for the passage from death into life.