Prayer for the Aged
AM Psalm 6, 12 • PM Psalm 94
Lam. 1:17-22 • 2 Cor. 1:8-22 • Mark 11:27-33
Today’s Eucharistic Psalm is an elderly person’s plea for help. The psalmist looks back at a long life and finds that God has always been faithful: For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O Lord, from my birth; it was you who took me from my mother's womb.
The psalmist looks back at all the ways God has been faithful in a long life, and asks for God's protection in growing older: Do not cast me off in the time of old age; do not forsake me when my strength is spent.
The psalmist’s plea is reflected in a beautiful prayer for the aged in our Book of Common Prayer and I remember how much solace this prayer brought to my mother and me during her time in a nursing home as her health continued to fail:
Look with mercy, O God our Father, on all whose increasing years bring them weakness, distress, or isolation. Provide for them homes of dignity and peace; give them understanding helpers, and the willingness to accept help; and, as their strength diminishes, increase their faith and their assurance of your love. This we ask in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. BCP p. 830.
Written by Kathy McGregor
Kathy is grateful for the Book of Common Prayer.