July 1, 2024
We never know when God is going to call. Praying for the sick and dying can give them the strength to surrender and let the Holy Spirit radiate their body, mind and soul. The following column was written by Catholic Transcript Editor Karen A. Avitabile, during an unexpected illness that threatened her life and showed her firsthand the power of prayer.
“I unexpectedly spent four nights in the hospital. Because it was an emergency situation, I had no time to prepare physically or emotionally before going into the emergency room. And without knowing what was wrong with me and why this was happening, it was very frightening.
On the first evening, the doctor had a diagnosis and scheduled a procedure two days later that would give us more answers. But the root cause of my sudden illness would not reveal itself until nearly a week later, after all of my test results came back from the laboratory.
Of course, when you are in a hospital bed and you have a ton of time on your hands, you think, think, think. I kept thinking of questions I needed God to answer: ‘Am I going to be OK?’ ‘How long will it take to get back to normal?’ ‘What am I going to do if I get negative test results?’ ‘What if I don’t get better?’ ‘When can I go home?’ And my favorite question was, ‘Why is this happening to me?’ I went from feeling like a 10 in the morning to a paltry 1 by the end of the day and confined to a hospital bed.
It did not take long for me to realize that all of this thinking made me worry and feel worse. So I changed the ‘thinking’ into ‘praying’ with endless Our Fathers, Hail Marys, Glory Be’s and prayers to the Holy Spirit. I reached out to Blessed Michael J. McGivney, a parish priest from Connecticut who is on his way to sainthood, and recited his prayer for canonization. I watched daily Mass.
I received an endless stream of telephone calls and text messages from family, friends and my church community. All of them kept asking the same question, ‘What can I do?’ I just wanted to feel better, so I asked everyone to ‘pray for me.’ I have never done that before.
I continue to be on a path toward better health. But one thing never changes. The power of prayer makes all the difference.”
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