“O my God, . . . you know my past and my present. I am too lonely, my health is deteriorating, my strength is not what it used to be, my memory is less reliable, my step is slower and my senses are losing something of their sharpness. I soon will need the help of others, and that thought makes me sad. More yet than the weakening of my senses I feel the ominous increase of the shadow of loneliness on my soul. Friends have died, ties have been loosened, mentalities have changed, and I find myself protecting against the new generation only to realize that by doing that I may placing myself in the old. There are fewer and fewer people round me with whom I can freely share my views and air my feelings. I do not understand well, I don’t even hear well, and I take refuge in a corner seat when all sit around the table, and in silence when all talk. Loneliness is growing on me as the ghost of death on the stones of a cemetery. The sickness against which there is no remedy. The ebb of life. The harbinger of death.

I feel fear of sickness, of inability, of solitude, of death. And I turn to you, God, who are my only help in my fears, my only support in my infirmity. You have ruled over the first part of my life, rule over the last, too. Sustain me when all others fail me. Relieve my solitude when all abandon me. Give me comfort, give me strength, to feel kindly till the end, to smile till the last moment.

Lord of my health, be also the Lord of my sickness . . .”

Praying together, Carlos G. Valles

Resources:
UNAIDS
UNICEF
World Health Organization
Caritas
National