www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall what to do ?

I have a neighbor who is Orthodox who is now in a nursing home. I have called and let his pastor know of his situation. But I am not sure that he has visited him. So I called the local OCA church but I got the Matushka. Is it normaly this hard to get a priest to visit a sick person. What else can I do ?
Also where can I find prayers for the sick and dying that a lay person can use . What is normally used?
Thank you for your help

No it shouldn't be so difficult, well, I don't know how things work in the USA, but I suppose that the clergy of a monastery will be more willing to provide the unction for the sick.

Theodore, there is a Canon for the Sick as well as other prayers to be read for the sick. Several prayer books contain these prayers. The Canon for the Sick is included in the Great Book of Needs and a version is also present in the Old Believer (Erie) prayer book.

There are also some shorter prayers for the sick on-line such as: http://home.it.net.au/~jgrapsas/pages/Prayers.htm
http://www.gocanada.org/Youth/prayers.html
http://www.st-seraphim.com/fprayer.htm
http://www.goarch.org/en/chapel/liturgical_texts/
sick.asp

That seems a little strange about the visitation. Most Orthodox and Eastsern Catholic clergy I know of will readily visit the sick.

It is also not unheard of to contact other Orthodox parishes when you have difficulty getting a particular priest to return calls for a visitation. Some parishes cover a very large area, and the priest may have a day job, or he may have a parish that is predominantly elderly folks- in which cases he is not always able to respond readily. It helps if he is organized, I guess. Anyhow, try another local Orthodox parish if there is one- the priests usually help each other out across boundaries in cases like this.