A Mass of the Anointing of the Sick was celebrated by Bishop Alfred Schlert on Aug. 24 at the noon Mass at St. Thomas More, Allentown.
The Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick was delivered to several hundred people from St. Thomas More and surrounding parishes in the Lehigh Deanery. It was the third of five Anointing Masses the Bishop is celebrating across the Diocese in this Jubilee Year of Hope.
Bishop Schlert has called Anointing of the Sick “a great Sacrament of Hope,” and one that is mostly celebrated in private – in a home, in a nursing home, in a hospital room.
The Sacrament is not associated only with the dying, however. It can benefit anyone in need of healing, he said, whether it be physical healing, emotional healing, or spiritual healing.
The oil used in the administration of the Sacrament is called the Oil of the Sick. It is one of three holy oils that are blessed by the Bishop each year at the Chrism Mass during Holy Week. The other two blessed oils are the Oil of Catechumens, for prebaptismal anointings, and Sacred Chrism, used in the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Orders.
The first two Jubilee Year of Hope Anointing Masses were celebrated on March 16 at St. Jane Frances de Chantal, Easton in the Northampton Deanery and on May 4 at St. Ambrose, Schuylkill Haven in the Schuylkill Deanery.
Another Anointing Mass took place at St. Catharine of Siena, Reading in the Berks Deanery on Sunday, Sept. 7 at 11:30 a.m. Mass.
The final Anointing Mass for the Jubilee Year will be celebrated at St. Joseph in Summit Hill in the Carbon Deanery on Sunday, Nov. 23 at 11 a.m. Mass.
For more information on Jubilee Year of Hope events, go to www.allentowndiocese.org/jubileeyear.
Photos by Vargas Photography.
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