The Church's least understood sacrament - Divine doctoring
By Mark Shea A bishop gives the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick to an autistic child at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington Feb. 11, 2008. CNS photo We Sheas tend toward the hefty end of the spectrum. Some of that is genetics. Some of it is how the family tends to relate to food and (fails) to govern its appetites. Sin has a generational aspect to it. And sin is, among other things, enslaving (as anybody struggling with addiction will tell you). That’s why, after nearly fifty years of grappling with my renegade appetites and watching my weight balloon into dangerous obesity, I finally (after my priest suggested it) asked for the sacrament of Anointing of the Sick a few years ago. The result was uncanny. Quite simply, my appetite for sweets simply died and my appetite for other foods became, for the first time in my life, manageable. It doesn’t mean I didn’t still have a long struggle ahead of me. But suddenly the struggle became