February 04, 2010
Pre-Planning
In protestant churches when the preacher isn’t available a lay person comes forward to carry out the task. It appears that’s not the case for our Catholic friends, whose sacraments need to be performed by a priest. In the past, when someone was near death, the priest was summoned to perform deathbed rites. Because of a shortage of priests the once-obligatory deathbed rites have been replaced with a new sacrament known as anointing the sick. Folks are strongly encouraged to have the anointing of the sick before they go to the hospital…just in case.
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----It is quite natural for people to look for meaning in the things they do and to do things that are commonly held to be meaningful. Death is rather meaningful. I guess it follows that the great authority Catholics see in the priest would place him at as many deathbeds as possible. But it is a bit humorous that the difficulty of finding a priest for this has given more meaning to the scriptural practice of anointing the sick. That was really their place all along. It isn’t the priest who meaningfully comes to the side of the deathbed, it is the Lord.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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