Prayers for Medical Professionals
Jesus My Patient Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Dearest Lord, may I see you today and every day in the person of your sick, and, whilst nursing them, minister unto you. Though you hide yourself behind the unattractive disguise of the irritable, the exacting, the unreasonable, may I still recognize you and say: "Jesus, my patient, how sweet it is to serve you." Lord, give me this seeing faith, then my work will never be monotonous. I will never find joy in humoring the fancies and gratifying the wishes of all poor sufferers. O beloved sick, how doubly dear you are to me, when you personify Christ; and what a privilege is mine to be allowed to tend you. Sweetest Lord, make me appreciative of the dignity of my vocation, and its many responsibilities. Never permit me to disgrace it by giving way to coldness, unkindness, or impatience. And O God, while you are Jesus, my patient, deign also to be to me a patient Jesus, bearing with my faults, looking only to my intention, which is to love and serve you in the person of each of your sick. Lord, increase my faith, bless my efforts and work, now and for evermore. Amen.
Catholic Hippocratic Oath
I swear by our Heavenly Father, St. Luke the physician and my patron saints and all the holy people of the Church, making them my witnesses, that I will fulfill according to my ability and judgment this oath and this covenant: To hold Him who has brought me this art as my constant model and to live my life in partnership with Him, and to give through Him a share of my time and money, and to regard all my patients as my brothers in Christ and in such manner apply this art. And to whomever desires to learn this I will share the precepts and give oral instruction and all the other learning appropriate to the art according to my station in life, provided that these pupils have signed the covenant and have taken an oath according to the medical law and the laws of the Holy Catholic Church. I will apply all medical measures for the benefit of the sick according to my ability and judgment; I will keep them from harm and injustice. I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody who asks for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect. Similarly I will not give to a woman an abortive remedy nor advise any agent to prevent pregnancy. I will not refer to any practitioner for the purpose of procuring such services. In purity and holiness I will guard my life and my art. I will not use the knife nor any remedy at which I am not skilled, but will withdraw in favor of such practitioners as are engaged in this work. Whatever rooms or hospitals or houses I may visit, I will come for the benefit of the sick, remaining free of all intentional injustice, of all mischief and in particular of sexual relations with both female and male persons, be they rich or poor, strong or weak. What I may see or hear in the course of the treatment or even outside of the treatment in regard to the life of my patients, which on no account one must spread abroad, I will keep to myself, holding such things shameful to be spoken about. If I fulfill this oath and do not violate it, may it be granted to me to enjoy life and art, being honored among all men for all time to come, and in the end blessed with eternal salvation by our beneficent and loving Almighty Father; if I transgress it and swear falsely, may the opposite of all this be my lot.