Prayer During This Pandemic

By Msgr. Bernard W. Bourgeois

Dear Heavenly Father:

We come before you today as a people of faith imploring your intercession. Our society, our schools, our churches, and much of our work has come to a standstill in light of an unseen enemy known as the coronavirus.

Dear Lord, to begin with and most importantly, we pray for those who contracted this hideous disease, most especially those who are physically most vulnerable; the aged, the sick, nursing home patients, and any with compromised immune systems. We offer up to you all those on the front lines of fighting this disease, most especially those in the medical profession, public health officers, scientists and government officials who are working day and night to find ways to beat this disease. Inspire them, O Lord, with minds filled with knowledge and hearts filled with love as they work to protect the rest of us.

We also pray for those who are supplying us with food, gas, medical supplies and oil for our homes. We thank you and we pray for those who work to protect us, namely, firefighters, police officers and ambulance attendants. And we pray for all those whose jobs make it necessary that they go into work and thus make themselves vulnerable to this disease.

Dear Lord, I now ask you to help the rest of us who are not on the front lines and are being asked to distance socially from one another. We are feeling restless, anxious, and a bit on edge, Lord. We are starting to find it hard to sit home and just wait this thing out. Wild news reports are filling the airwaves and it is hard for us to discern those that are real. Our children are getting antsy without school. We worry about supplies in stores, our jobs and livelihoods. 

Give us faith, give us courage and inspire us to do the right thing. Inspire us, O Lord to stay vigilant and strong through this. Inspire us to keep our distance from one another and thus keep our children, families and ourselves safe from this disease.

All this we ask through Christ our Lord. Amen.