"Extreme unction" and "last rites" are no longer a part of the Church's ministry to the sick and dying, according to Father Charles Gusmer. Today, communal celebration frames sacramental experience. In the rites for the sick and dying, this experience is the paschal mystery-working in the life of the seriously ill Christian in the community. Priests, deacons, and students of liturgy will find this work a sourcebook for understanding the development of the rites and a guide in the ritual praxis. Suggestions for ministerial implementation are made in the context of information now available from liturgical scholarship and modern scientific research on sickness and death.
