This volume consists of three sections:
1. Basic rules for visiting the sick
2. A format for a prayer service
3. Prayers and Scripture readings to flesh out the format.

The basic rules for visiting are solid advice drawn from A Thoughtful Word, A Healing Touch of Joseph M. Champlin and Susan Champlin Taylor. The additional rules added by DeGidio are excellent - including the family, use of symbolism, etc. These or similar rules should be part of the training for any minister to the sick.

The format for the prayer service is in keeping with the official service for distribution of communion to the sick. Through prayers and Scripture for specific situations and through prayers in the form of litanies, it provides opportunity to response to more specific situations - stroke, cancer, surgery, lost of an infant ... For the Scriptural selection for these 15+ situations I highly recommend the book.

The weakness of the book is that there are phrases in the prayers that could be inappropriate for a number of people - inappropriate as in outside their theology or knowledge e.g. "your sacrament of pain and suffering" or "St. Juliana Falconieri". There are also no Marian prayers, yet for many of the elderly the Rosary is their primary personal devotion.

There is nothing "wrong" with what I see as a weakness. It is merely that the individuals most apt to use this book are precisely those most uncomfortable with improvising prayers to fit the spirituality of the person with the illness and those supporting that individual. Therefore, while I think this is a solid book for training, I'm uncomfortable recommending it as a ritual book.

While the writer of this book shows a deep passion for the Sacraments, it is evident that she is not an expert of theology or history. Her understanding of the nature of the sacraments is almost heretical, but she does a very good job in describing the process of Christian initiation for adults. I DO NOT recommend this book as a guide for theology!