“Almighty God, you have created with infinite wisdom the human body which is the envelope of the immortal soul. The intricacies of all the organs acting in perfect order, agreement and accord, you have wondrously combined that act unceasingly and harmoniously, to preserve the whole human body in all its beauty. But due to human frailty or the unbridling of passions which deranges this order or interrupts this accord, then forces clash, and the body crumbles into the primal dust from which it came. You send to man diseases as beneficent messengers to foretell approaching danger and to urge him to avert it.

You have bless the whole earth: its rivers and mountains with healing substances that would enable your creatures to alleviate their sufferings and to heal their illnesses. You have also endowed man with the wisdom to relieve the suffering of his brother, to recognize his disorders, to extract the healing substances, to discover their powers and to prepare and to apply them to suit every ill. O Eternal Providence, You have chosen me to watch over the life and health of your people. As I apply myself to the duties of my profession, support me, O God Almighty, in these great labours that they may benefit mankind, for without Your help and guidance not even my best will succeed.

Inspire me with love for my art and for Your people. Do not allow thirst for profit, ambition for renown and admiration, to interfere with my profession, for these are the enemies of truth and of love for mankind and they can lead astray in the great task of attending to the welfare of Thy people. Preserve the strength of my body and of my soul that they ever be ready to cheerfully help and support rich and poor, good and bad, enemy as well as friend. In the sufferer let me see only the human being. Illumine my mind that it recognize what presents itself and that it may comprehend what is absent or hidden. Let it not fail to see what is visible, but do not permit it to arrogate to itself the power to see what cannot be seen, for delicate and indefinite are the bounds of the great art of caring for the lives and health of mankind. Let me never be absent-minded. May no strange thoughts divert my attention at the bedside of the sick, or disturb my mind in its silent labours, for great and sacred are the thoughtful deliberations required to preserve the lives and health of Your people.

Grant that my patients have confidence in me and my art and follow my directions and my counsel. Remove from their midst all charlatans and the whole host of officious relatives and know-all nurses, cruel people who arrogantly frustrate the wisest purposes of our art and often lead Your people to their death.

Should those who are wiser than I wish to improve and instruct me, let my soul gratefully follow their guidance; for vast is the extent of our art. Should conceited fools, however, censure me, then let love for my profession steel me against them, so that I remain steadfast without regard for age, for reputation, or for honour, because surrender would bring to Your people sickness and death.

Imbue my soul with gentleness and calmness when older colleagues, proud of their age, wish to displace me or to scorn me or disdainfully to teach me. May even this be an advantage to me, for they know many things of which I am ignorant, but let not their arrogance trouble me.

Let me be contented in everything except in the great science of my profession. Never allow the thought to arise in me that I have attained to sufficient knowledge, but vouchsafe to me the strength, the leisure and the ambition ever to extend my knowledge for this art is great, but the mind of man is ever expanding.

Now, Almighty God, I implore You to mercifully watch over Your sick people and grant me guidance and wisdom to do this great task of relieving them of their diseases. I thank You, Lord, for you are the Great Healer and look upon you for support as I exercise my profession. All these things, I pray, through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Amen.”