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Prayers for all people affected by AIDS
The International AIDS Conference is underway in Vienna this week. Over 20,000 people from more than 180 countries are there. Some of the news from the conference is very encouraging, such as the report about a new gel that shows great promise for protecting against HIV.
AIDS activist and singer (one of my favs) Annie Lennox calls funding for AIDS research a “human rights issue.” See http://www.annielennox.com
The study was conducted among South African women by two South African researchers. South Africa has one of the highest AIDS rates in the world. The Wall Street Journal said that the gel is unique in that “it is the first time an HIV-prevention method controlled by women, who bear the brunt of the epidemic in Africa, has been shown to work.” There’s still a lot of clinical work to be done in regard to the gel, and hopefully it will be successful. If it is, women in South Africa and around the world will be better able to protect their own health.
In the meantime, I continue to pray for the people at the conference who are working to end the stigma and the suffering of HIV/AIDS. I also pray for those who are directly affected by HIV/AIDS – people who have AIDS, their families and loved ones, their communities.
I especially keep in mind my friend Tim, who died of AIDS several years ago. May he rest in peace. Please mention other people affected by AIDS for whom you’d like to pray.
For prayer and reflection resources about HIV/AIDS please see the website of my IHM Sisters.
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{ 5 comments }
my brother, john, has been hiv positive since he was 21–19 years. he has issues, but he would ask you to pray for those in the last stages of aids whom he cares for and provides hospice care to. so many, even today, are abandoned by their families and die alone or with strangers at their bedsides. so, pray for the abandoned afflicted.
p.s.–thank you for providing this opportunity, sr. maxine.
Hi Marla, I will keep your brother in my prayers, as well as all who suffer in so many different ways from HIV and AIDS, and those who love and care for them.
Thank you Sister Maxine for such a powerful piece! I also have 2 people very special to my heart (an aunt, a great friend) who are currently living with HIV and believe it is important to ensure that knowledge, information, education, and compassion is exercised in difficult times such as these. It’s great that there are conferences, clinics, and research currently focused on ways to help such an epidemic as HIV/AIDS. Not only do I wish to extend a prayer for my auntie and friend, but I wish to extend a prayers to all those effected directly and/or indirectly with HIV/AIDS (whether it is those searching for a vaccine, raising money for this cause, doctors, nurses, people living with HIV/AIDS, and their loved ones). May God Bless us all – always!
I agree with Marla and her brother, and I’d like to join in their prayer for all those with AIDS who have no one to pray for them. I also pray for those who care for AIDS victims, and for those who work for a cure. God bless them all.