You plead earnestly for your health, and indeed it is not wrong to bring such requests before God. But consider for a moment: are you as fervent in seeking the health of your soul? The body, which must soon return to dust, receives all this urgency, while the soul, which shall face judgment, is often neglected. When Christ healed the sick, He did not merely cure the body; He drew the person toward repentance. Recall the paralytic: first, He forgave his sins. Why? To show that the deeper illness is within. So I ask you, while you pray for your body, do you also cry out for the cleansing of your sins? Do you examine your life, turning from every lust and greedy attachment? For a man who is rich in this world's goods but poor in mercy, or one who clings to pleasure while ignoring the needy, may find that bodily health becomes a snare rather than a mercy. The fever of covetousness burns more fiercely than any bodily fever, and the ulcers of the soul destroy far more surely.
Do not think that a short burst of prayer or a few days of piety will restore you. When a fever leaves, the patient still requires time to regain strength; so it is with the soul. If after asking for healing you return to the very sins that caused your sickness, you have gained nothing. The true physician is Christ, and He often permits bodily ailments to rouse you from spiritual lethargy. When He touched Peter's mother-in-law, she rose at once and served, her healing led to service. Will your healing, if granted, lead you to serve God more zealously, or will you forget Him once the pain is gone?
Therefore, I will pray for you, but I urge you to pray for yourself with greater wisdom. Ask not only for the body's relief, but for a humble and contrite heart. Seek the medicine of almsgiving, the remedy of fasting, the purification that comes from examining your ways. And when you approach the holy Mysteries, do so not casually, but as one who has separated from all filthiness. For the Deacon cries, "The holy things for the holy," and if you are not striving to be holy, you do harm to yourself. So come, then, bringing your request for health, but let the health of your soul be first, and trust the Lord's will in all things. He knows whether bodily health will profit you, and He will give what is best if you but surrender to Him.