A PRAYER FOR A CURE

This prayer for a cure below makes reference to our Lord’s healing power. Our Divine Physician did indeed work wonders in his Earthly ministry, such as in curing the blind man near Jericho (Mark 10:46-52, depicted in this picture above), the centurion’s servant (Matt 8:5-13), and a leper (Luke 5:12-13), among other miracles.

But, as this prayer rightly points out, we have to have the grace and strength from Jesus not to become embittered if He doesn’t cure our afflictions right away, (or even at all)!

Gentle Jesus, who cured the sick and laid a healing hand upon the lame, the blind and the handicapped, look with compassion upon me in my suffering. If it is not your Will to cure me, then give me strength to bear my burden and offer it up to You. You suffered so much for me. Give me grace to offer my sufferings in union with Your own, in reparation for my sins and those of others, for the needs of this troubled world, and for the release of the souls in purgatory. Mary, compassionate Mother, pray for your weary child. Health of the Sick, Comforter of the Afflicted, pray for me. Amen.

Just as Christ suffered for us on the Cross so also He asks us to suffer for Him, that is to say, to unite our sufferings with His in reparation for sins and for the salvation of souls. As St. Augustine once said, “let us understand that God is a Physician, and that suffering is a medicine for salvation, not a punishment for damnation.”

Keep in mind that if we trust in God to do what is good for us, and reinforce this trust through prayers such as this one, we can achieve that wonderful state of grace where we can be content in sickness or in health, knowing that God is in charge and wishes to bring about our good for His glory, no matter what may happen.

As John Henry Cardinal Newman wrote in one of his well-known prayers “God has created me to do Him some definite service….therefore I will trust Him…if I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him….He knows what He is about.”

This prayer for a cure is good also in that it brings our Blessed Mother into the picture. When our Lord said to St. John from the cross “Behold, thy Mother”, he made her our Mother as well, as noted by St. Bernadine of Siena. As such she is more than ready to pray for us to her Divine Son. St. Basil once said that “such is the Divine Will that she should help in every kind of necessity.”

Don’t be afraid to ask for her assistance as well as that of Jesus! As we read in the wonderful prayer the Memorare, “Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thy intercession was left unaided.”