Pope Francis prays for the elderly who are afraid of dying of coronavirus

Pope Francis has offered his prayers for the elderly who live alone or in retirement homes who live in fear of contracting the coronavirus and dying alone because of it. This was expressed by the Pope in the daily prayer intentions at the beginning of the live transmission of the Mass he celebrates in the mornings in St. Martha´s House in the Vatican.

With respect to the elderly, Pope Francis showed great concern for all of them, sharing their fear and pain in this pandemic of coronavirus that plagues humanity. Pope Francis´ words were:

"Let us pray today for the elderly, especially those who are isolated in retirement homes for the elderly, they are afraid, afraid to die alone. They feel the Coronavirus pandemic as something aggressive for them. The elderly are our roots, our history, they have given us the faith, the traditions, the sense of belonging to a country. Let us pray for the elderly so that God will be close to them at this time.

God is close to his people.

Pope Francis also reflected on the first reading from the day of the Acts of the Apostles, in which the Apostle Peter and St. John cure a beggar crippled from birth in the Name of Jesus Christ. His words of reflection were as follows:

"I have neither silver nor gold, but what I have I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, rise and walk," Peter said to the man before he was healed.

By healing the cripple, God shows that He is faithful to His promise of closeness to His people.

God, who is able to remake things, to recreate, as He did with this man crippled from birth whom He healed. This is his faithfulness to all of us; it is a "re-creation" that is more wonderful than creation.

God works overtime with faithfulness.

Like the shepherd who goes in search of the lost sheep and the Father of the prodigal son, our God is a God who works overtime out of love, out of faithfulness.

God´s faithfulness is a feast; it is a joy; it is such a joy that he makes us do as this crippled man did: he entered the temple walking, jumping, praising God.

God´s faithfulness is a feast, it is a free feast; a feast for us all.

Patience is also a seal of God´s faithfulness, as shown by Christ´s appearance to Peter after the resurrection, even though Peter has denied it.

We know that it was God´s faithfulness that sought Peter out. God´s faithfulness always precedes us and our faithfulness is always the answer to that faithfulness that precedes us.