In the Church's Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick, throughthe ministry of the priest, it is Jesus who touches the sick to heal them from sin – and sometimes even from physical ailment. His cures were signs of the arrival of the Kingdom of God. The core message of his healing tells us of his plan to conquer sin and death by his dying and rising.

The Rite of Anointing tells us there is no need to wait until a person is at the point of death to receive the Sacrament. A careful judgment about the serious nature of the illness is sufficient.

When the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick is given, the hoped-for effect is that, if it be God's will, the person be physically healed of illness. But even if there is no physical healing, the primary effect of the Sacrament is a spiritual healing by which the sick person receives the Holy Spirit's gift of peace and courage to deal with the difficulties that accompany serious illness or the frailty of old age.

~from the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults | en español

     With patient privacy regulations (HIPPA), it is important to remember the following if you are going to be hospitalized for any length of time.  When you register or are admitted, tell the hospital:      
       • That you are Catholic;
        • That you worship at St. Mary and St. Ann;
        • Give the hospital permission to tell us that you are hospitalized when we inquire.
If you don’t tell them, privacy regulations prevent the hospital from telling us if we ask them!  If they aren’t able to tell us, we may not know that you are hospitalized.
     Also, most folks don’t seem to realize that the hospitals do not automatically notify us when a parishioner is hospitalized.  If you happen to be admitted through the emergency room, this is doubly true, as religious preference and place of worship information often slips through the cracks.
     The best way to make sure that we know when you are hospitalized is for you or a loved one to call the parish office to inform us.  Please also do this if your loved one is being discharged from the hospital and is going to a rehab facility.  It’s easy to lose track of where patients are once they leave the hospital but have not yet returned home.
     Finally, since many procedures are now scheduled in advance, please feel free to ask for the Anointing of the Sick if you are anticipating surgery or any other sort of in- or out-patient procedure.  It’s always good to receive sacramental grace--a dose of healing medicine--from Jesus, the Divine Physician!