Pope Francis offered prayers for elderly people living alone or in retirement homes who are living in fear of contracting the coronavirus and dying alone.
“They are our roots, our history. They have given us the faith, traditions, the sense of belonging to a homeland. Let us pray for them so that the Lord may be close to them in this moment,” the pope said on 15th April at the beginning of the live broadcast of his morning Mass in the Domus Sanctae Marthae.
The pope reflected on the day’s first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, in which Peter and John heal a beggar crippled from birth.
“I have neither silver nor gold, but what I do have I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, rise and walk,” Peter told the man before he was healed.
In healing the crippled man, the pope said, God shows that he is faithful to his promise of closeness to his people.
Picture: An employee holds the hand of a person at an elderly residence in Brussels on 14th April 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic. During his 15th April morning Mass at the Vatican, Pope Francis prayed for the elderly who are fearful of dying alone during the pandemic. (CNS photo/Yves Herman, Reuters).
