It is not easy to watch while a child suffers from a debilitating disease or even just a passing fever. Many parents turn to God in their hour of need, offering up prayers for their sick child.
One saint many parents turn to is St. Gerard Majella. He was an 18th-century saint who acquired a reputation for miracles, especially for children and women in childbirth.
Here is a common prayer for a sick child that seeks the intercession of this miraculous saint.
O Saint Gerard, who, like the Savior, loved children so tenderly and by your prayers freed many from disease and even from death; graciously look down upon the distressed parents who plead with thee for their child’s health, if such be the Will of God.
Present their promise to God to bring up the child a good Christian and to guard him (her) by word and example against the fatal leprosy of sin. This favor we implore thee, O sainted Brother, through the tender love with which Jesus and Mary blessed thy own innocent childhood. Amen.
And today we celebrate...