Recently, my pastor drove to Boston to administer the Sacramenent of Anointing of the Sick to a dieing child. Upon his arrival, he was met by a nun who runs the Chaplaincy program at Boston Children's Hospital. She was surprised that he had driven 4 hours to administer this Sacrament, and commented ...
"We don't wait for the priests to come. Normally, we administer this Sacrament ourselves".
If you ever find yourself or a loved one in this situation, insist on a priest.
The LORD has made us all priests and kings. We are a royal priesthood. It seems the CC makes doctrines that cause people to believe that they are dependent on it rather than Christ Himself thus causing people to fear for being apart from it. I am a member of the body of Christ through the Spirit of God by the blood of Jesus the Christ not through membership into any particular denomination. All the promises are mine. I have been healed miraculously apart from any Catholic priest and I am sure I will be again. It has been through the prayers of myself, other saints and at a different time elders from another church that the LORD has healed me. It has always been by the power of The LORD that I have been healed whether miraculously or otherwise.
My family has been blessed with a miracle from holy oil and an annointing. Our youngest had a tumor growing in his left ear which had virtually destroyed his hearing. He had an operation to remove the tumor, but after the operation, his ear canal healed completely shut. We took him to a specialist in Boston who said that he believed further surgery would be needed but that his hearing was probably gone in that ear. He said to come back in six weeks and they would schedule the surgery. We were devastated of course. Previous to going down to the specialist, I had mentioned to the priest's wife that I wished someone had some holy oil from the lamp over the tomb of +Nektarios of Aegina in Greece because of the great miracles attributed to that oil. She looked at me stunned and said she had been cleaning out some boxes that day and had found a vial of that oil which they had brought with them from their former parish along with a small icon of the saint. That evening the priest came over and annointed our son and told us to annoit him ourselves with the oil everyday. We did. Six weeks later it was back to the specialist. He looked in our son's ear, turned to us and asked. "What have you been doing?" I told him about the annointing and +Nektarios. "Well" he said "his ear is open! We think we have a miracle here!" He knew what he was talking about since he had on several occasions served as an investigator of "ear" miracles for the Vatican. The doc wanted all the details of +Nektarios. Tests of the boy's hearing later that day showed that it was actually better, by far, than before the tumor!
Kontakion, 4th Tone
You lived your life in a holy way, O St. Nektarios; being a Bishop rich in wisdom, you have glorified the Lord with your life of virtue; being strengthened by the power of the Holy Spirit, you drive out evil spirits and heal the sick. Intercede for those who come to you in faith!
Good! One of the very reasons that there is a vocations shortage is that the laity - and nuns - are permitted and encouraged to do so many things that were once the priest's job alone that there is no longer much of anything to be called to. The theory seems to be that the job of the pastor now is to handle the bills and fundraising, and the laity or the nuns will do all the liturgical and spiritual "stuff," from distributing the Sacraments to running retreats, etc. This is an inversion of the way things should be, and I think it is one of the things that accounts for the drop-off in vocations.
In places like LA, where the good Cardinal has insured that there will be no priestly vocations, in order to further his project to laicize and feminize (and "gayicize") the Church, so many things have already been assigned to lay people and the ever-eager nuns (who see the priesthood as just a heartbeat away) that it's going to be difficult to reverse this. But it has to be done; perhaps the way to do it is to form some sort of relationship with a good order priest or even a holy retired diocesan priest who could probably get permission to visit you in the hospital. We have a wonderful, devoted retired priest here who is ceaseless in hospital visits, confessions, etc.
Of course, Phony Mahony probably goes out of his way to prevent any of these from sneaking into his diocese. But if we quietly accept the system he has set up - run by nuns and lay people - then that's all we're going to get.
I am a bit conflicted on this one. If a Priest can not be found but a Deacon is available should the sick go without the Anointing?
This has always been the case!
Once upon a time, I would read the commentaries such as those here and use the rhetoric as a good excuse to flee from my obligations as a Christian. Obligations such as attending church, giving as I had been blessed, and even praying. I have come to realize that many of you are sincere in you candor, and your opinion of your OWN ideas will never be swayed. Since the concensus is that the Bible is correct, and it is inspired......I tend to concentrate (i.e. try hardest) on the things that apply to my life, the things that matter to God. If any of you have prayed about the translation of "priest" or "elder" or "saint", and gotten an answer, then you are more blessed than me. I tried it and woke up thinking I had other things to work on, and decided that was my answer.
I'm not sure I have anything to say other than I think none of you have the answers......but I'll still be asking the Lord for guidance.....