PARISH of the HOLY EUCHARIST

During Business Hours, Monday-Thursday 9 am - 4 pm:

If you or someone you know is residing within our parish boundaries and is in need the Sacrament of the Sick, please contact the office at (207) 847-6890. 
 

After Hours:

Call our office, (207) 847-6890,  and let the phone ring until voicemail picks up, about 5 rings. The recording will direct you to press 7 to leave a message for the on-call priest. After pressing 7, you will be transferred to a mailbox that gives instructions to leave your name and telephone number for the priest on call. After leaving your name and telephone number, hang up the phone, and your message will be delivered to the on-call priest. He will call you back to make arrangements.

A Sacrament is an outward sign established by Jesus Christ to confer inward grace through the power of the Holy Spirit. The Anointing of the Sick is for all Catholics, as a means to bring both spiritual and physical strength to those who suffer from physical, emotional, or mental illnesses, are scheduled for serious surgery, treatments for disease, physical therapies, or experience a sudden medical crisis. The Anointing of the Sick is often administered outside of the “Last Rites” and it should not be delayed without good reason. The Sacrament is appropriate for the elderly weakened by advanced age or suffering from chronic or long-term illnesses. In addition, anyone struggling or recovering from alcoholism or other addictions may also be anointed. The Sacrament can be celebrated several times over the course of an illness or disease and the person afflicted has no need to explain the reason for presenting themselves. For those who are in the end-of-life stage or Hospice care, if they wish to be anointed, family members should contact the parish where their loved one is currently residing to have them anointed as soon as possible, as a priest may not be available on short notice prior to death.

The “Last Rites”
Through God’s divine mercy, He gives us several Sacraments in the Last Rites to
comfort us in our final days of preparation for the journey ahead. These
include Reconciliation (Confession), Confirmation (when lacking),
Anointing of the Sick, and Viaticum (Holy Communion).

The Sacrament of Anointing is a sacrament of healing, so to state the obvious, you have to be sick in order to receive it. It’s not enough just to be in danger (such as those who are going off to war). Anointing is meant specifically to help those who are sick.

What does it do? In the Sacrament of Anointing, the grace of healing is given to your soul and, if God judges it expedient, to your body as well. Physical healings are unusual, but they do happen. Archbishop Fulton Sheen told a story about being called to the bedside of a dying woman who had been living a notorious life of sin. When he anointed her, she miraculously recovered, amended her ways, and became quite an apostle of the Faith in that neighborhood of New York City. God saw that her recovery would help her soul, and so He gave her that grace.

Even when bodily healings don’t happen, spiritual strength and healing always does. Our last days on earth can be a trial. Some of us will be tested in faith, hope, and charity and sometimes the devil will take one last swing at us when we are most vulnerable. The Sacrament of the Sick gives us strength to make the final push and persevere in the faith until the bitter end.

It also heals us. It heals wounds left by sin over the years. If received with the right dispositions, Anointing of the Sick even cancels the temporal punishment due to our sins (i.e., it can reduce or cancel our time in Purgatory). Perhaps most significantly, it can forgive sins, and this is vitally important for those who fall unconscious having not yet made a good Confession. If they are in some sense repentant of their sins before they become unconscious, the act of being anointed can forgive mortal sin and save their soul.

When should you get anointed? As soon as you know the illness is serious. You should not wait until you or your loved one is actively dying. When that happens, the priest may not get there in time. Call early. Receive those graces of anointing as soon as you know you are ill, so that you can lean on them throughout the illness. Should you recover, praise God! If you fall sick again, you can always be anointed again.

 –Joe Moreshead, Director of Faith Formation

In its Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council taught that “‘Extreme Unction,’ which may also and more fittingly be called ‘Anointing of the Sick,’ is not a sacrament only for those who are at the point of death. Hence, as soon as any one of the faithful begins to be in danger of death from sickness or old age, the fitting time for them to receive this sacrament has certainly already arrived.” (73) This teaching is repeated in paragraph 1514 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

To help us understand what the Church means by someone who begins to be in danger of death but who is not at the point of death, the Introduction to the Pastoral Care of the Sick says the Anointing of the Sick may be received by “those who are seriously ill.” (5) It goes on to say that “a prudent or reasonably sure judgment, without scruple, is sufficient for deciding on the seriousness of an illness” and that, “if necessary, a doctor may be consulted” (8). The same Introduction also says that “great care and concern should be taken to see that those of the faithful whose health is seriously impaired by sickness or old age receives this sacrament.” (8) A footnote here in the English translation of the original Latin text explains that “the sacrament may and should be given to anyone whose health is seriously impaired; on the other hand, it may not be given indiscriminately or to any person whose health is not seriously impaired.”

 –Fr. Cartwright, Pastor
 

Bath............... All Saints Parish, St. Mary church | (207) 443-3423
Biddeford........Good Shepherd Parish, St.Joseph Church | (207) 282-3321
Bridgton......... St. Joseph Parish, St. Joseph Church | (207) 647-2334
Brunswick........All Saints Parish, St. Charles Borromeo/St. John the Baptist | (207) 725-2624
Cape Elizabeth..St. John Paul II Parish, St. Bartholomew | (207) 799-5528
Falmouth.........Parish of the Holy Eucharist, Holy Martyrs | (207) 847-6890
Freeport.......... Parish of the Holy Eucharist, St. Jude | (207) 847-6890
Gorham...........St. Anthony of Padua Parish, St. Anne | (207) 839-4857
Gray................Parish of the Holy Eucharist,St. Gregory the Great | (207) 847-6890
Lewiston.........Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul/Holy Family | (207) 777-1200
Portland..........Portland Peninsula and Island Parishes | (207) 773-7746

Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Sacred Heart/Dominic, St. Christopher (Peaks Island), Our Lady Star of the Sea (Long Island, seasonal), St. Louis, St. Peter

Portland.........Our Lady of Hope Parish| (207) 797-7026

St. Joseph Church, St. Pius X Church

Saco................Good Shepherd Parish, Most Holy Trinity Church  | (207) 282-3321
Scarborough....St. Paull II Parish, St. Maximillian Kolbe Church | (207) 883-0334
Sebago............St. Anthony of Padua Parish | (207) 857-0490

Our Lady of Sebago Church (July-Labor Day)

So. Portland....Paul II Parish, Holy Cross Church/St. John Church | (207) 883-0334
Westbrook.......St. Anthony of Padua Parish, St. Hyacinth Church | (207) 857-0490
Windham........St. Anthony of Padua Parish, Our Lady of Perpetual Help | (207) 857-0490
Yarmouth........Parish of the Holy Eucharist, Sacred Heart Church | (207) 847-6890