Anointing of the Sick

On the first Thursday of each month, we will celebrate the 9:00 a.m. Holy Mass with the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick.

Please call the parish office ahead of time to indicate you would like to celebrate the Sacrament. If you are in need to be anointed sooner than the next Anointing Mass, please call the parish office to schedule a time after one of our Holy Masses.

To schedule the celebration of the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick, please call our parish office at

281-370-3401.

When can you receive this sacrament?

In case of grave illness...

The Anointing of the Sick “is not a sacrament for those only who are at the point of death. Hence, as soon as anyone of the faithful begins to be in danger of death from sickness or old age, the fitting time for him to receive this sacrament has certainly already arrived.”

If a sick person who received this anointing recovers his health, he or she can in the case of another grave illness receive this sacrament again. If during the same illness the person’s condition becomes more serious, the sacrament may be repeated. It is fitting to receive the Anointing of the Sick just prior to a serious operation. The same holds for the elderly whose frailty becomes more pronounced.

“...let him call for the presbyters of the Church”

Only priests (bishops and presbyters) are ministers of the Anointing of the Sick. The faithful should encourage the sick to call for a priest to receive this sacrament. The sick should prepare themselves to receive it with good dispositions, assisted by the priest and the whole ecclesial community, which is invited to surround the sick in a special way through their prayers and fraternal attention.

How is this sacrament celebrated?

Like all the sacraments the Anointing of the Sick is a liturgical and communal celebration, whether it takes place in the family home, a hospital or church, for a single sick person or a whole group of sick persons. It is very fitting to celebrate it within the Eucharist, the memorial of the Lord’s Passover. If circumstances suggest it, the celebration of the sacrament can be preceded by the sacrament of Penance and followed by the sacrament of the Eucharist. As the sacrament of Christ’s Passover the Eucharist should always be the last sacrament of the earthly journey, the “viaticum” for “passing over” to eternal life.

Word and sacrament form an indivisible whole. The Liturgy of the Word, preceded by an act of repentance, opens the celebration. The words of Christ, the witness of the apostles, awaken the faith of the sick person and of the community to ask the Lord for the strength of his Spirit.

The celebration of the sacrament includes the following principal elements: the “priests of the Church”—in silence—lay hands on the sick; they pray over them in the faith of the Church — this is the epiclesis proper to this sacrament; they then anoint them with oil blessed, if possible, by the bishop.