Prayers of the Faithful for the Heroic Health Workers on the Frontline of COVID-19 Fight
29 March 2020
In response to the call for prayers today, 29 March 2020, by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) for the country’s medical frontliners against the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the women and men of the EcoWaste Coalition earnestly offer the following prayers:
1. For the doctors, nurses, clinical laboratory technicians, administrative personnel, ancillary staff, paramedics, funeral home and crematorium workers, as well as volunteers, that they may remain healthy — physically, mentally and emotionally — as they continue putting their own lives at risk to be of service to others in these troubled times (Lord, hear our prayer);
2. For the families of healthcare workers and other frontliners to have hope, serenity and peace of mind that their loved ones will be spared of coronavirus infection as they perform their all-important services for society (Lord, hear our prayer);
3. For all healthcare frontliners to be provided with continuous supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) such as medical-grade masks, facecovers, goggles and gowns to protect themselves from being exposed to the dreaded coronavirus in the line of duty (Lord, hear our prayer);
4. For the bereaved families of healthcare frontliners who succumbed to COVID-19 to find solace in the fact that the whole nation is with them in spirit as they mourn the passing of their loved ones (Lord, hear our prayer);
5. For healthcare frontliners undergoing home quarantine not to develop symptoms of coronavirus infection and for them to be able to re-join their colleagues on the frontline of the fight against COVID-19 outbreak (Lord, hear our prayer);
6. For more doctors, nurses and other medical professionals and volunteers to come forward to replace those who have fallen ill and to attend to the growing number of COVID-19 cases (Lord, hear our prayer);
7. For the stigma and discrimination being faced by some healthcare frontliners to come to an end, and for such paranoia to be replaced with love and respect that all frontliners deserve for their selfless and most courageous service in the face of an invisible enemy (Lord, hear our prayer);
8. For local government units, hotels, churches and other institutions to open their facilities to healthcare workers and other frontliners where they can adequately and comfortably rest and recharge after work (Lord, hear our prayer);
9. For the government and hospital authorities to also look after the mental health of frontliners, ensuring their access to counseling services and other mechanisms to cope with fatigue and stress (Lord, hear our prayer); and
10. For us, the Filipino people, to express our deepest gratitude to all healthcare workers and other frontliners by staying at home during the COVID-19 lockdown, observing basic protective measures, and by caring for ourselves, our families and communities during these trying times. Lord, hear all our prayers. Amen.
…………………
To All the Bishops and the Diocesan Administrators
Your Eminences, Your Excellencies and Reverend Administrators:
Re: A Call and Invitation to a Special Day of Prayer for Our Frontline Medical Personnel in this Time of Crisis
Although I am quite sure that many of us, if not all, have been remembering and keeping in our prayers, like our Oratio Imperata, those who are in the medical frontline of our collective efforts to face the menace that the Corona Virus disease has brought to our people, we make this call and invitation to all our bishops, clergy and religious, and to all our faithful, to be united in a
Special Day of Prayer for All our Frontline Medical Personnel in our fight against the Corona Virus Disease Pandemic
On March 29, 2020, the 5th Sunday of Lent
We do this in all our Masses, our Rosaries, during our Holy Hour, and in our moments of Personal Prayer.
OUR FERVENT PRAYERS FOR THEM:
For our doctors, nurses, medical staff, all people working in hospitals and clinics, all our medical specialists and researchers, and all those personnel in our DOH:
- Our prayer of gratitude to the Lord for their heroic service to our people in these difficult times.
- Our prayer to the Lord for their continued safety and well-being.
- Our prayer to the Lord for those among them who lost their lives, having been infected by the disease itself, the disease that they were precisely fighting against. Let us pray for their grieving families and loved ones.
- Our prayer to the Lord for those among them who are sick and those who are getting over-fatigued.
- Our prayer to the Lord that they may receive the much-needed material support and assistance to perform their duties as medical frontliners in this crisis situation.
We leave it to each diocese and its parishes to concretize this general call to prayer in your liturgies and pastoral directives. This may be articulated in our introduction to the masses, homilies, prayers of the faithful, and intentions in our rosaries and holy hour. Of course we continue praying our Oratio Imperata.
MAY OUR PRAYERS MOVE US TO ACTION:
Among the actions of support we can do is to remind ourselves and our people to cooperate with and obey and follow the quarantine measures that our local government directed us to follow, most especially the directive to stay at home.
Another action we can do: It has come to our attention that many medical personnel, doctors, nurses, and medical staff are now in a problematic situation. They are hesitant to go back to their families, and their families and children are hesitant to receive them at home – for the simple obvious reason: they fear that the Corona Virus Disease might be transmitted to them. Also we heard that some landlords are now becoming hesitant to allow them to come home to their rented places for fear of the transmission of this disease.
May our prayer move us to action: As dioceses and parishes, can we start assisting them by providing facilities for them to go home to, some place for rest and sleep, and perhaps some meals – a second home for our dedicated medical frontliners – like some available buildings and rooms in our dioceses and parishes, for example, formation centers, retreat houses, and pastoral centers? And of course, with well-prepared hygienic protocols as we make these places available for them.
Thank you very much for your kind consideration of this call and invitation. Let us continue praying for each other.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Pastoral Guidelines: Caring for the Sick and the Healers
I. Pastoral Ministry to individual sick persons.
Recommendation: identify only one priest per parish or religious community to make sick calls (healthy, no chronic respiratory ailments, not diabetic, no heart or kidney problems). Negotiate with barangay for extra quarantine pass for priest assigned to sick calls.
A. Sacraments
For all sacraments:
- If in hospital: coordinate with and follow advice of hospital administration and attending physicians/nurses as well as family. Prioritize medical advice over wishes of family. If we have a Catholic chaplain in the hospital, let the chaplain do the ministry.
- Follow basic rules for self-protection and protection of others: –
- Wear mask (preferably N-95 but surgical is acceptable);
- Wash and sanitize hands;
- Follow social/physical distancing rules;
- Cough or sneeze into elbow, not into hand.
- Sanitize sacramental and liturgical paraphernalia before and after use (soap & water if possible, 70% alcohol if in the field)
1. Mass and Eucharist
- Administer by dropping host into hand, not in mouth; avoid hand-to-hand contact.
- If patient cannot receive by hand, administer in mouth but sanitize hands before and after .
- For COVID-19 patients:
- use personal protective equipment (PPE, required in hospitals) and discard afterward;
- make sure you are able to retrieve the host with latex gloves (put host in corporal if retrieving from pyx is difficult);
- ask for help from hospital staff in removing and disposing of PPE.
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