# Prayer to ask God that all illness may bring forth good
*2008-10-05*

> Bill Young leads a prayer focused on surrendering one's physical and mental health to God's will, specifically offering intentions for John and Roseanne.

## Intentions for the Sick

Good afternoon. This is Bill Young and welcome to the 160th episode of Prayer and Lunch. Today we are going to pray a prayer to ask God that all illnesses may bring forth good. I would like to give my special attention to two individuals: John, to whom I give communion every Sunday, and his wife, Roseanne. John is very ill, and Roseanne is going to be having heart surgery this Tuesday. May we pray for and bless John and Roseanne, that they may have good health and strength. Please keep these two individuals in mind as we pray.

## Accepting God's Will in Suffering

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Lord, Your Spirit is always so good and so gentle in all things. Give me, therefore, Your grace so that I may not behave in an unchristian manner in the conditions in which You have permitted me to find myself. As a true Christian, may I recognize You as my Father and my God, whatever my physical or mental state may be, because the change in my condition does not change anything in Yours. For You are always the same God, both when You allow me to suffer and when You comfort me.

## Surrendering Health and Desire

You gave me health to serve You, and I have often used it despicably. Now You permit illness in my life; do not let me use it to irritate You with my impatience. Lord, keep away from me the sadness that self-centeredness may bring because of my own sufferings, and because of the love I have for the things of the world which I can no longer enjoy. May I desire the gifts of health and life only in order that I may use them for You, with You, and in You, thus fulfilling Your will in all things.

## Offering Suffering for the Church

I ask You neither for health nor for illness, neither for life nor for death. But dispose of my health, of my illness, of my life, and of my death as You please, for Your glory and for my salvation, and for the good of the Church and all its members. Lord, may I accept Your will, and may I glorify You in my illness. May my sufferings bring me closer to You. Lord, choose to touch my heart through Your own suffering.

## Union with the Passion of Christ

It is by the crosses which we carry that You recognize those who are Your disciples. Now that I am Your disciple by the suffering I bear, unite my will to Yours and my pain to that for which You suffered. Let my suffering become Yours. Unite me to Yourself; fill me with Yourself and with Your Holy Spirit. Enter my heart and my soul to sustain me in my suffering, so that in my own body I will make up all the hardships that still have to be undergone by Your Passion, so that You may accomplish through the members of Your body, the Church, her perfect communion.

*Grant that I shall no longer live or suffer, but that Christ shall live and suffer in me.*