A Healing Prayer

LORD, JESUS CHRIST, I AM DEEPLY SORRY FOR MY SINS. HAVE MERCY ON ME. In Your name, JESUS, I ask You for the grace to forgive myself. I ask your forgiveness for hurting others. I ask for the grace to forgive all those who have hurt me in this life, and especially the one person who has hurt me the most. I renounce forever Satan, ALL the evil spirits and all their works. I give you my entire self Lord JESUS, now and forever, you are my Lord, God, SAVIOR AND REDEEMER. Please heal me, change me, strengthen me in body, mind and spirit for my greater service in Your Kingdom. Allow me to lead other souls to You through my good example. JESUS I trust in you! Come Lord JESUS, cover me with Your most precious blood, and fill me with Your Holy Spirit, I praise You, I thank You, I glorify Your name, JESUS. I love You JESUS WITH MY WHOLE HEART, SOUL, MIND, BODY AND MY WHOLE BEING. O’ Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, with Holy Raphael the Archangel and all the holy Angels and Saints, pray for us! Amen   

Hat tip to Ed at In God's Company 2

A Prayer for Healing

Heavenly Father, I call You right now in a special way. It is through Your power that I was created.

Every breath I take, every morning I wake, and every moment of every hour, I live under Your power.

Father, I ask You now to touch me with that same power. For you created me from nothing, You can now certainly recreate me. Fill me with the healing power of your Holy Spirit. Cast out anything that should not be in me. Mend what is broken. Root out any unproductive cells. Open any blocked arteries or veins and rebuild any damaged areas. Remove all inflammation and cleanse any infection.

Let the warmth of Your healing love pass through my body to make new any unhealthy areas so that my body will function the way You created it to function.

And Father, restore me to full health in mind and body so that I may serve You the rest of my life. I asked this through Christ our Lord.

Hat tip to In God's Company 2 for the prayer!

Healing through the Blessed Sacrament

The following comes from the Georgia Bulletin:

A healing service flowed from the opening Mass of the Eucharistic Congress as a monstrance holding the Blessed Sacrament was placed on the altar. 

“The Holy Spirit has already begun the work of healing he intends to accomplish,” said Father Tim Hepburn, leading the bilingual service with Father Jorge Carranza.

Encouraging the faith of those seeking healing, Father Hepburn recalled Scripture stories of Paul and Silas, beaten and in prison, who began to sing praises to God despite their suffering. As they sang the building began to shake and the doors of the jail flew open.

“We are entering into the worship of God … and as we enter into our worship of the Lord, Jesus is going to open doors for our healing, even now,” he said.

The two priests alternated praying in English and Spanish, while musicians quietly sang consoling and simple words of faith. “Earth has no sorrow that heaven can’t heal. … All who are broken, lift up your face. O wanderer, come home. You’re not too far.”

Many stories in Scripture tell of people crying out, “Son of David, have mercy on me,” Father Hepburn said. “There is story after story of people who are sick, who are in a dark place, who are depressed, who found this cry in their hearts.”

“Can you remember one time in the Bible when Jesus said no? There is not one time. … We want you to cry out. This is a healing service and this is the place where you cry out, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me.’”

Quietly, he called forward teams of lay people who had volunteered and been trained to assist at the service. While they were blessed and they went to prayer stations on the perimeter of the hall, identified as Spanish or English prayer teams, Father Hepburn reminded everyone that the presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament on the altar was the focus. Those who wanted individual prayer went to the prayer stations while the rest of the congregation continued to pray and sing worship songs, following the lead of the priests and musicians.

Inspired by the Holy Spirit, the priests voiced prayers for anyone who felt they had been forgotten, for couples who yearn for children and have been unable to conceive a child or adopt a child, for the broken-hearted, for those with mental health problems, and for other needs.

One by one, people began to draw closer to the monstrance. They knelt in the center aisle of the hall. Some were weeping. Throughout this time, the prayer teams around the edge of the room individually ministered to people seeking prayer. They continued to do so for more than an hour, even after Benediction was prayed and the monstrance was taken from the hall.

“Jesus is the healer”

César Soto of St. Joseph Church, in Marietta, was one drawn toward the monstrance.

Afterward, he explained that he experienced a conversion beginning four years ago.

“It came the hard way, but I thank him because he didn’t come for the saints. He came for us, for the sinners,” said Soto, who works as a cook.

He was diagnosed with cancer affecting his tongue. The doctor told his family he might not be able to speak after surgery, but he has kept his speech and uses it to tell other people about Jesus, he said.

“I wanted everyone to know about him. Lord, you allowed me to talk again. I want to talk about you. … At the beginning I said, why me. Now I know he is using me for the conversion of my family, the conversion of my co-workers.”

Read the rest here.

Our Father, Our Healer

The following comes from the In God's Company 2 blog:

Yet, though I stooped to feed My child, they did not know that I was their Healer." -Hosea 11:4

Do you think your heavenly Father wants to heal you? Does He want to heal you completely? Does He want to heal you now? Many people are not sure how to answer these questions. They know that their Father loves them and can heal them. Yet they don't know if or when He will heal them. They know there are many factors in healing, and this makes them unsure if their Father will heal them.We should not let the many factors in healing overshadow the loving, healing, present Fatherhood of God; rather, our Father's love should make us almost forget the complications surrounding healing.

We should be like little children who, when hurt, run to their parents for healing and think of little else.Our heavenly Father is trying to make us so aware of His love that everything else fades into the background. He is drawing us to Him "with human cords, with bands of love" (Hos 11:4). He fosters us "like one who raises an infant to his cheeks" (Hos 11:4). Our Father stoops to feed us and wants to help us more than we want help (Hos 11:4). May we translate all this tender, fatherly love into the assurance that our Father is our Healer.

Prayer: Father, may I expect healing from You now. "Cure the sick, raise the dead, heal the leprous, expel demons. The gift you have received, give as a gift." -Mt 10:8

Charlene Richard: "The Little Cajun Saint" and God's Healing Power

The following comes from the Chicago Tribune:

Mary Lou Swanson’s body was shutting down after battling a rare and debilitating autoimmune disease affecting her brain for nearly a decade.

The 54-year-old North Aurora woman could no longer eat solid food. She had signed legal documents asking medical personnel not to resuscitate her if her heart stopped beating. And after talking through funeral plans with her husband, she relied on her religious beliefs to bring her peace in the face of death, which Swanson felt was closing in.

“I thought this is God’s will, and this is his answer to all my pain and suffering,” Swanson recalled. “At that point, I didn’t have much of a life, and I thought maybe he’s just giving me peace as a gift.”

What happened next is something Swanson herself admits is almost inconceivable.


After seeing a segment on the long-running program “Unsolved Mysteries” about a grave site in Louisiana where hundreds of people flock weekly to pray for healing, Swanson persuaded her husband to take her there.

Within a day after running her fingers over the tombstone of 12-year-old Charlene Richard, “the Little Cajun Saint” who, according to legend, offered up all her suffering to others when she died of leukemia in 1959, Swanson’s symptoms began to disappear. Weeks later, her doctor confirmed Swanson’s disease, limbic encephalitis — which affects about 1 in 100,000 people and can be fatal — had suddenly gone into remission.

She no longer needed the medicine and treatments she had relied on for years.

“We are not sure exactly what happened, and we are not sure why it reversed itself,” said Dr. Ronald Glas, a family physician at Edward Hospital who has overseen Swanson’s care since before she was ever sick. “I’m not sure what to attribute it to.”

Read the rest here.

A PRAYER TO CHARLENE RICHARD

Charlene, when you were only twelve years old, you showed heroic faith, hope, and love; dying of leukemia, you joined yourself to Jesus on His Cross and offered your intense pain for others. You thereby echoed St. Pauls words to his people in Colossians 1, 24: Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of His Body, the Church.


Charlene, I believe you are with God. Please ask our Heavenly Father, His only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit to grant me the following favor: (mention favor sought)


Charlene, thank you for helping me. May Jesus Christ always be praised. May Mary, Jesus Ever-Virgin Mother, always be called blessed.  Amen.

Myrrh Weeping Icons of Jesus and St. John the Baptist

An Orthodox church in Homer Glen is drawing pilgrims from across Chicagoland to witness what some are calling a miracle. An icon of St. John the Baptist has been oozing fragrant oil at Assumption Greek Orthodox Church. Parishioners believer the oil to be myrrh, and many claim that the myrrh has healed their health conditions.

I visited this Church last weekend and found that the Icon of Jesus the Teacher has also been weeping myrrh oil. The Jesus Icon is directly to the left of the Icon of St. John the Baptist and began weeping on December 31, 2016 from the left hand of Jesus. Just a few weeks ago the right hand also began to weep. The right hand is giving a blessing and is situated just over the heart of Jesus. The myrrh oil was clearly visible on both of the icons! It now seems appropriate that St. John the Baptist began weeping first so as to prepare the way for Jesus! These signs are an encouragement to all of us to pray and deepen our relationship with Christ!

The Healing Fountain of Grief

The following comes from The Catholic Exchange:

June 19. 2016
Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time
First Reading: Zech 12:10-11, 13:1
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/061916.cfm

Grieving is a strange process. When a close friend or relative dies, you might think that we would need cheering up—bright colors, clowns, comedians, anything that could be an antidote to our painful loss. Yet, in fact, we don’t want cheering up right away. We need to sit in the pain a while, reflect on the loss, experience the hurt of separation. Grieving helps us to hit the pause button on life and allow us to undergo this important, if painful process. Something about grieving is oddly purifying. It changes us, or rather, helps us come to grips with the change which we are inevitably undergoing.

Pouring Out

In this Sunday’s first reading from Zechariah, the prophet brings us face-to-face with the pain and purifying power of grief. Following on the heels of a prophecy about the salvation of Judah (12:1-9), God promises a new chapter for the Davidic kingdom. “I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of compassion and supplication” (Zech 12:10a RSV). Elsewhere, God’s action of out-pouring is linked with his giving of his own Spirit (Ezek 39:29, Joel 2:28-29) or wrath (e.g. Jer 10:25; Ezek 22:22). Here then, the “spirit of compassion and supplication” is to be identified as the Holy Spirit, God’s own Spirit. This “compassion” is chen in Hebrew, a word usually translated as “grace,” that is, the favorable treatment of a loyal subject by a higher authority. God’s power will come with favor, but also with “supplication,” aiding the prayers of the holy ones, as is promised in the NT (Rom 8:26).

Who is Pierced?

Next the prophet tells us about a mysterious person who will be pierced. Usually, translations rely on the Greek version of the OT and read something like “they look on him whom they have pierced” (RSV). Yet that’s not what the Hebrew says. The Hebrew of Zech 12:10 says “they will look on me, whom they have pierced”! This translational point may seem like a mere technicality, but by altering what the Hebrew says, the translators are writing God out of this passage. God is saying that he himself will be pierced. The ancient scribes who handed down the versions to us found difficulty with this idea (How could God be pierced?) and so sometimes tweaked the text to make it easier. Yet biblical text criticism preserves an important principle of lectio difficilior, that is, the more difficult reading is usually more original. Here, God is forecasting that he himself will be pierced through. And here, the piercing is a mortal blow (as it is, e.g., in Num 25:8, Judg 9:54).

A Pierced Son – Look, Mourn, Weep

Zechariah is one of the most mysterious, hard-to-interpret books of the Bible, so it is no surprise that our passage is a bit mystifying. The prophet is forecasting a moment when a certain person, who seems to be God, and who is also kind of like a son, will be mortally wounded and then mourned for. In fact, he places the sequence of events as follows: first, the mortal blow will be struck, then the people will look upon the victim. Finally they will mourn and weep over him as if he had been a only child, a firstborn son (Zech 12:10). Any death of a child is bitter medicine to his or her parents, but the prophet emphasizes the especially grievous nature of this event by comparing it to the particularly sad case of a couple losing its only child.

Mourning in Megiddo

Yet this grieving which the people will undergo will carry in it the seeds of healing. It is through the process of grieving that the people will arrive at a new place, become changed, renewed. Zechariah, in his mercurial prophetic manner, compares this future grieving to “the mourning for Hadadrimmon in the plain of Megiddo” (Zech 12:11 RSV). Unfortunately, “Hadadrimmon” is not a normal word and it defies easy explanation by scholars. However, in my view the best explanation of this bizarre word connects it with a historical event from the Davidic dynasty. Hadadrimmon probably is not a person, but a place, likely a village near the known location of Megiddo. (Megiddo was a fortified city in the Jezreel valley. You can visit it today as an archaeological site at an Israeli national park, which I did a few years ago.)

The only major biblical event that took place at Megiddo was during the reign of Josiah. Pharaoh Necho II was riding through Palestine on his way to the Battle of Carchemish (the last major battle between the Assyrians and Babylonians), when King Josiah decided to oppose him at the Valley of Jezreel and try to prevent his army from reaching the important battle. During the conflict, King Josiah was struck down and killed at Megiddo (2 Kings 23:29). Apparently, the mourning for the great king Josiah was unusually intense (2 Chr 35:24), and perhaps began at an otherwise unknown village of Hadadrimmon, so Zechariah is probably referring back to this event here. He adds to the intensity by denoting the important families that will participate in the grieving, the families of David (kingly), Nathan (prophetic), Levi and Shimei (priestly).

A Fountain

As a result of the mortal piercing of God and in the context of this great mourning, “on that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness” (Zech 13:1). While the idea of a “fountain” may conjure up the Trevi Fountain or the fountain at the Bellagio in Las Vegas for us, the ancient Israelites had no such thing. It is better to think of “fountain” in this context as a “spring,” a natural source of fresh water. While most springs in the Holy Land are rather small or even intermittent, some natural springs are much more powerful than manmade fountains. For example, “Big Spring” in the Ozarks of Missouri pumps out 3,434 gallons per second. Not all natural fountains should be looked down upon! The fountain Zechariah speaks of will not bring mere water, but will bring spiritual healing that will transform God’s people and take away their sins. This fountain, of course, is represented by the pierced side of Jesus on the cross, from which blood and water flows (John 19:34).

In the end, I think Zechariah offers us a great picture of how our redemption progresses. First, we have to come to grips with what we’ve done—participated in the death of God on a cross. Then we look upon him in his suffering and feel the horrible grief of guilt. Finally, through the process of contrition, repentance and turning toward God, we are able to experience his forgiveness, mercy and healing power—the “fountain” of redemption. We experience the fountain in Baptism, in Confession and in Communion. The Pierced One comes to us again and again, welcoming us back to receive more of his mercy.

Year of Mercy: 8 Ways to Heal Wounds

The following comes from the Catholic Exchange:

On April 11, 2015, Pope Francis stood in front of the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica handing out copies of the Year of Mercy “Bull of Indiction” to the priests of the major basilicas of Rome and to Vatican officials. Inside St. Peter’s Basilica, portions of the 9,300-word proclamation were read aloud and then Pope Francis processed into St. Peter’s Basilica to celebrate first vespers of Divine Mercy Sunday, 2015.

In his homily at vespers, the pope said that he proclaimed the Year of Mercy because “It is the favorable time to heal wounds, a time not to be weary of meeting all those who are waiting to see and touch with their hands the signs of the closeness of God, a time to offer everyone the way of forgiveness and reconciliation.”

In a recent media interview the inquirer asked me, “Who needs to be healed?” I responded, “Who doesn’t?” Will we live this favorable time intensely and allow divine mercy to heal wounds?

Sin sickness is a wound that we all share. We can learn to cover it up so that everything appears well from the outside. We know how to get up each day and go to work. We have our daily routines and perform our duties. But in the stillness of the night we ask, “Is this all there is?” Deep inside we hope for more. This is by God’s design. He made us for the more. But what is it? God. Heaven. Eternal Life. Beatitude. We long for these. Our longing for the more is meant to urge us forward to the goal. Too often on the journey we get sidetracked, wounded, forgetful, and attacked from within and without. As the Holy Door has opened, also our hearts must open. Then divine mercy provides for healing, holiness and happiness.

Where to begin?

We can decide to live the Jubilee of Mercy with intentionality, intensity and integrity.The Jubilee offers the promise of extraordinary grace. Using an acronym for the word MERCIFUL, here are eight suggestions meant to be practical but purposeful.

Mercy: manifesting forgivenessEucharistic: encountering Incarnate MercyReconciliation: healing through ConfessionConfidence: trustIntentional: mercy in the present momentFaithful: spiritual & corporal works of mercyUnity: mercy in relationshipsLove: self-emptying mercy

1. Mercy: manifesting forgiveness

Cardinal Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan is featured in my new book (God’s Healing Mercy) as an exemplary “profile in mercy”. He was held as a prisoner of war in Vietnam for many years. The following quote reveals the healing power of forgiveness.

“It was very hard for my guards to understand when I spoke about loving our enemies, reconciliation and forgiveness. “Do you really love us?” “Yes, I really love you.” “Even when we cause you pain? When you suffer because you’re in prison without trial?” “Look at all the years we’ve been spent together. Of course, I love you!” “And when you get out, will you tell your people to find us and beat us and hurt our families?” “I’ll continue to love you even if you wish to kill me.” “But why?” “Because Jesus taught us to love always; if we don’t, we are no longer worthy to be called Christians.” (God’s Healing Mercy, pg. 78 )

Who is capable of such merciful love and courage? Grace makes us capable of heroic virtuous mercy. Our fallen nature may prefer to cry out “Justice! Vengeance!” But we are capable of loving those who do not love us in return. After all, Christ loved us first when we did not love Him. What prevents us from repeating Christ’s words from the cross when with dying breath He prayed for his persecutors, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do?” Christ gives forgiveness but He cannot force us to accept it. Knowing that we are “receivers” of divine mercy is key to becoming a vessel of mercy for others.

St. Phillip Neri teaches us an important lesson about the poison of unforgiveness: “If a man finds it very hard to forgive injuries, let him look at a Crucifix, and think that Christ shed all His Blood for him, and not only forgave His enemies, but even prayed His Heavenly Father to forgive them also. Let him remember that when he prays the Our Father, every day, instead of asking pardon for his sins, he is calling down vengeance on himself.” Who can afford to call down vengeance upon himself?

2. Eucharistic: encountering Incarnate Mercy

Archbishop Fulton Sheen wrote, “The greatest love story of all time is contained in a tiny white Host.” We become active participants in the drama of salvation through Eucharistic intimacy. Blessed Mother Teresa wrote, “The time you spend with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is the best time that you will spend on earth. Each moment that you spend with Jesus will deepen your union with Him and make your soul everlastingly more glorious and beautiful in heaven, and will help bring about an everlasting peace on earth.”

Some complain that the Mass is boring or that they have no time for Adoration. They rob themselves of the intimacy that is realized by living an intensely Eucharistic life. They long for healing but deprive themselves of the Divine Physician and the medicine of mercy.

The Eucharist is meant to become the “heart” of our life. Christ asks that we show up.  Jesus told St. Faustina: “My Heart overflows with great mercy for souls, and for poor sinners…for whom I dwell in the tabernacle as King of Mercy. I desire to bestow My graces upon souls, but they do not want to accept them.”

3. Reconciliation: healing through Confession

St. Faustina recorded the Lord’s words, “When you approach the confessional, know this, I am only hidden by the priest, but I myself act in your soul.”

Christ emptied every drop of His precious blood for the forgiveness of our sin. Do you seeking healing? Let it begin with the words, “Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned.”

When I unburden myself in the confessional I lay down the weight of my sin at the feet of the Good Shepherd. With the words of absolution, rivers of mercy flow into my heart and heal my sin-sickness. Confession sets me free for the works of mercy.

St. Isidore of Seville wrote, “Confession heals, confession justifies, confession grants pardon of sin, all hope consists in confession; in confession there is a chance for mercy.”

4. Confidence: Trust

Christ told St. Faustina, “Oh, how much I am hurt by a soul’s distrust! Such a soul professes that I am holy and just, but does not believe that I am Mercy and does not trust in My Goodness. Even the devils glorify My Justice but do not believe in My Goodness” (Diary 300).

St. Faustina also heard from Jesus, “My child, know that all the greatest obstacles to holiness are discouragement and an exaggerated anxiety. These will deprive you of the ability to practice virtue. All temptations united together ought not disturb your interior peace, not even momentarily. Sensitiveness and discouragement are the fruits of self-love. You should not become discouraged, but strive to make My love reign in the place of your self-love. Have confidence, My child.” (Diary, 1487).

5. Intentional: mercy in the present moment

When Cardinal Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan was imprisoned he created a “rule of life” for himself. He decided not to live his time in prison in a state of waiting. He decided to live in the grace of the present moment, to make the jail his mission field, the prison his cathedral. He would not lose the grace of the present moment because He would meet Jesus there. He did not compartmentalize his faith in prison. He integrated it into his daily life and consequently brought many unbelievers to Jesus.

We can decide (an act of the will) to live the Jubilee Year intentionally in the grace of the present moment. This means releasing the past to God and not worrying about the future because it is in Christ’s hands.

St. Faustina prayed, “O Jesus, I want to live in the present moment, to live as if this were the last day of my life. I want to use every moment scrupulously for the greater glory of God, to use every circumstance for the benefit of my soul. I want to look upon everything, from the point of view that nothing happens without the will of God.”

Read the rest here.

How to Pray for Physical Healing

The following comes from the Francis McNutt at Word Among Us:

Of all the kinds of healing, physical healing is perhaps the hardest for us to really believe in; it is far easier to believe that prayer can lead to repentance or can change a person psychologically.

Yet real physical healings take place regularly in the prayer groups I know. Often, a dozen or more occur at conferences when we take the time to pray for the sick.

So if you have the faith that the Lord still heals people as he did two thousand years ago, launch out and learn to pray for the sick. For, although physical healing may stretch your faith (have you ever prayed for a blind person?), it is also the simplest kind of prayer. 

The Confidence to Launch Out. To pray for the first time requires courage. I used to feel very foolish, as if I were pretending to be someone special when I knew I was just an ordinary person. Who was I to pretend to be a great healer, to act like Christ? All this was, of course, merely false humility since, as we know, Christ himself instructed his followers to pray for the sick. Sometimes healing requires more courage than faith.

What a joy when we find that God really answers our prayers and heals the people we love! The praise of God spontaneously rises from our hearts. If you have confidence that Jesus might use your prayers to heal the sick, then there are just a few simple steps to learn. They are easy enough to remember; we do not need a graduate degree to learn to pray for physical healing.

I have missionary friends who are teaching the poor people of the barrios of Latin America to pray for the sick, and they report that about eighty percent of these unlettered people are healed or notably improved. There is no one method or technique that always produces results; God wants us to depend on him—not upon a technique. But there are some simple steps that flow out of the very nature of prayer for healing, and these I want to share with you.

Listening. The first step is always to listen in order to find out what to pray for. Just as the first step for a doctor when he meets a patient is to find out what to treat, so we need to find out what we are meant to pray for. A doctor is looking for a right diagnosis. In prayer for healing, we are looking for the right discernment.

We are really listening to two things: to the person who asks for prayer and tells us what seems to be wrong; and to God, who from time to time shares with us the true diagnosis whenever the person isn’t sure what is wrong.

When we listen in this way, the Spirit comes to enlighten us when we are in the dark about what to pray for. To some people this special knowledge seems to come in a very special way in the form of definite mental images or verbal impressions. To many of us, however, the knowledge of what to pray for comes in a very natural way, more like a simple intuition.

We may not be sure whether we are inspired by God or not; we learn by experience to sift out our intuitions and to find what works out in practice. Often, after I have followed what seemed to me a simple intuition about what to pray for, the person I was praying for has told me that I touched on those very things he had not directly mentioned but had hoped that I would pray for. When these intuitions work out time after time, you learn to trust that God is working through them.

In addition to listening to the person, we should also be alert to the promptings of the Spirit who may enlighten us, especially when we don’t know what to pray for. It is not healthy for us to be unduly problem-oriented and symptom-centered. In the abundance of Christ’s health and life, sickness will be overcome, in the brilliance of that light, darkness and ignorance will be dispersed.

Laying on of Hands. In actual praying for the sick, the laying on of hands is a traditional Christian practice: “They will lay their hands on the sick, who will recover” (Mark 16:18). Certainly it is not essential; if you feel that the person you are praying for would be embarrassed or would feel more comfortable if you stay at a distance, then by all means be sensitive to his feelings. But if it does seem right, there are several advantages that explain the New Testament practice of the laying on of hands.

In the first place, there does seem to be a warm current of healing power that often flows from the minister of healing to the sick person. Precisely what happens when we feel this current we are not sure, but it seems like a transfer of life-giving power. Jesus himself experienced this flow of power in such a way that he could sense it:

Now there was a woman suffering from a hemorrhage for twelve years, whom no one had been able to cure. She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak; and the hemorrhage stopped at that instant. Jesus said, “Who touched me?” when they all denied that they had, Peter and his companions said, “Master, it is the crowds round you, pushing.” But Jesus said, “Somebody touched me. I felt that power had gone out from me.” (Luke 8:43-46)

Often we experience this same transfer of power, occasionally like a gentle electric current, but more often like a flow of warmth. Whatever it is, it is often connected with healing. It almost seems like a transfer of life.

Some with the gift of healing talk about “soaking prayer” in which you just soak the person in a prayer of God’s love. In thirty years of praying for the sick, we have discovered that this soaking prayer where we spend time with a person and pray with the laying on of hands helps immeasurably. It’s like God’s radiation treatment: The longer the sickness is held in the force-field of God’s love, the more it shrinks, until it finally disappears.

The Actual Prayer. In praying for the sick person, we can be spontaneous and improvise prayer for healing. We can assume any posture that is most comfortable for us—sitting, kneeling, or standing—where we can best forget ourselves and relax and concentrate on the presence of God. We turn our hearts and minds to the Father, or to Jesus; we know that it is only through their love that anything will happen. After welcoming their presence and praising God, we then turn to the petition itself.

Most ministers of healing suggest that we be specific in our prayer, that we visualize as clearly as possible what we are asking God to heal. For instance, if we are praying for the healing of a broken bone we can ask the Father (or Jesus) to take away every infection, to stimulate the growth of the cells needed to restore the bone, and to fill in any breaks. Such a specific request seems to enliven our own faith, as we see in our imagination what we are praying for. It also stimulates the faith of the sick person as he listens and pictures in his own mind what we are asking God to accomplish in reality. This helps him become more actively involved in the prayer, even if he says nothing.

On the other hand, some of us—that includes me—are by temperament not very good at imagining things; it is much easier to leave the imagination out and just ask God—but in a very specific way—to heal the person.

Read the rest here.

A Prayer for Healng to St. Raphael the Archangel

Here is a prayer to St. Raphael the Archangel, for healing and health from Spirit Daily:

St. Raphael, the Archangel, defend us from all sickness. Be our defense against illness and infirmity, we humbly pray. And do thou, oh prince of heavenly healing, by the power of God, cast all diseases, epidemics, disorders, and malignancies from us that endanger us bodily, emotionally, and spiritually, so that we may use our good health to do God’s will, in Jesus name. Amen

I Thirst: Eucharistic Healing

The following comes from the Catholic Exchange:

Among many Catholics there is a privation, a sense of absence and even estrangement from true communion with God. This is a paralyzing reality among some believers. How can this be when Jesus is always and truly present in the Eucharist, on the altars and in the tabernacles of the world? Jesus hasn’t abandoned us; He is truly and perpetually present. In His Presence there is healing.

Often we claim to be looking for God, but our back is turned to Him as we look to people and places where God is not found. We have to turn around to look at Jesus — face-to-face in the Eucharist — to make sense of the madness of the world all around us.

There is a great thirst among God’s people, but the thirst of Jesus is far greater. The Heart of the Eternal High Priest is not fickle like the human heart. The Church’s initiatives, including the crusade of prayer for priests suggested by the Congregation for the Clergy, will be fruitful only if we fall in love with Jesus in the Eucharist. The Eucharist is the deepest, most life-changing encounter with Jesus the High Priest.

The name Jesus the Eternal High Priest is intimately related to His hour when in Gethsemane Jesus prayed to the Father and to His perfect sacrifice on the altar of the Cross. Jesus is our High Priest, the victim of His own intercession for sinners.

The Eternal High Priest is a “victim offering” to God the Father for the ransom of humanity. Each ministerial priest becomes a victim offering also. Archbishop Fulton Sheen eloquently writes about this to his brother priests:

That moment when the priest lifts up the Host and the Chalice, he is at his best. A bride and groom are at their peak of loveliness and lovability at the moment of marriage. Love is said to be blind because it sees no faults in the beloved. God’s love becomes blind at this moment. He sees us through “the rose-colored glasses” of his Son. Never again will we appear as priestly, as victimal, as deserving of salvation, as we are when the Father sees us through “the rose-colored glasses” of the Body and Blood of his Son as we lift Host and Chalice to heaven. During this holy action, we priests become holy (Exodus 39:29). But we are also victims. We do not just offerMass; we are also offered. (Those Mysterious Priests)

If we take time to ponder these sublime truths of our Faith, we are struck with awe at the gift of God. He loved us into being, ransomed us from sin and death by laying down His life so that we can live forever, and then perpetuates Himself in the ministerial priesthood so that we can encounter the living Jesus made present by His priests.

The letter to the Hebrews says, “Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.” What does it mean to hold fast our confession? We confess that Jesus is Lord; we bear witness by our life and our good works. How can our confession of faith and love for Jesus be convincing if we are not encountering him?

The Healing Power of Eucharistic Contemplation

Communing with the Divine Lover of our soul becomes irresistible joy, not labor. The words of Bl. Teresa of Calcutta inspire us:

“When you look at the Crucifix, you understand how much Jesus loved you then. When you look at the Sacred Host you understand how much Jesus loves you now.” (Quoted in At the Altar of the World: The Pontificate of Pope John Paul II through the Lens of L’Osservatore Romano and the Words of Ecclesia de Eucharistia.)

In 2003, Pope John Paul II laid out a plan for the New Evangelization that starts with contemplating the face of Christ in the Eucharist stating that he would like to “rekindle Eucharistic amazement.” The Eucharist is the central provision of God for interior renewal and inner healing.

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Healing & Forgiveness by Dr. Margarett Schlientz

The following comes from The Integrated Catholic Life: 

“You don’t ask too much from God, you ask too little,” the silver-haired, Dr. Margarett Schlientz scolded her audience during a talk last month at the Thirst Conference in Bismarck, ND.  She spoke with confidence, infusing her audience with the certainty of the Gospels and the fire of the Holy Spirit.  Schlientz has the authority of one with three masters degrees; in theology, spirituality, and psychiatric nursing, as well as a doctorate in psychiatric nursing, and many years as an administrator and teacher at Marquette University.  But it is her no-nonsense, cut-to-the-chase style that gets an audience’s attention.

Schlientz knows of what she speaks. She has been involved in the deliverance ministry for many years and is the assistant director at the Institute for Priestly Formation at Creighton University where she teaches and ministers to seminarians in an intensive ten-week spiritual renewal program each summer.   “The Jesus of the Bible is still the Jesus of today,” she said. “He did miracles then and he will still do them for us today but we need to have faith and ask.”

Schlientz explained that in Scripture, Jesus healed everyone who came to him. She pointed to the sacrament of Confession as a powerful means to open up a flood of healing graces. Then, she talked about the power of the Eucharist. Schlientz asked, “Do you really trust what God wants to do in your heart or is it automatic?” She explained that the Eucharist should be taken very seriously because it has the power of grace to transform everything in your life.

“You’ve got the richest father in the world, who is waiting to pour out graces,” she said. Schlientz referred to Luke 11 where Jesus says, “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead?  Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?  If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11-13).

“He is doing that in the Eucharist every time you receive it,” Schlientz said. “Every time you have the opportunity to receive God in the Eucharist, don’t negate it,” she said. For those not going to Mass daily, Schlientz challenged them. “How late do you watch television?  That’s not going to get you to heaven; the Eucharist will.”

Schlientz said that she believes that if we had greater faith and asked God, we would see far more healings. “God really wants to bring people to wholeness,” she said. “Jesus is a physician of love with absolute power. His work of healing and salvation continues.” She strongly encouraged people to pray with faith and to evangelize by praying with and for others. “Every baptized Christian should be praying with people and those in the medical field should ask for the gift of healing,” she said.  “Pray for the gift of miracles. They are not dead. They are dormant because we don’t ask enough.” Schlientz explained that there are people in her prayer group that received the gift after asking. “The expression of Pentecost needs to live within our own prayer lives every day in our own experience,” she said. She encouraged people to set aside time for God but to also pray throughout the day, using every opportunity such as being stuck in traffic.

Speaking to parents, Schlientz told them they have tremendous power. “I don’t care what your kids have done, you lay them in the heart of Jesus every day. Do you realize how vulnerable God is to parents?”

The holy sacrament of matrimony holds the power of great graces according to her. “Hold each other every day and renew your marriage vows and ask the Lord to release the power he gave you in that sacrament,” she said. “I renew my baptism every day whenever I put my hand in the holy water font, I say. ‘Lord, renew the power of my baptism, explode the power of baptism in me and the power of confirmation.”

Schlientz reminded the audience of the healing of the blind man Bartimaeus in Matthew 10.   He heard Jesus walking by and shouted, “Jesus, Son of David, Have mercy on me.”

Then Jesus called to him and asked, “What do you want of me?”

“It is the same question Jesus asks of us every day in the Eucharist,” said Schlientz, —“What do you want of me?”

She advised everyone to “go for broke” and ask for everything God wants to give us and for every kind of healing that we need. Schlientz closed by sharing a story at her own church of a blind woman that was healed. “Ladies and gentlemen, that is not unusual,” she said.  “I could tell you a thousand stories like this.”

“Jesus never gave anyone false expectations,” she said.  “He healed anyone who came to him and he continues to do so.”

Advent and Intentional Healing

The following comes from the Catholic Exchange:

In his homily for the Second Sunday of Advent, Pope Francis reminds us, “Isaiah addresses the people who have passed through a dark time, that have undergone a very hard trial; but now the time of consolation has come. Sadness and fear can make way for joy, because the Lord Himself will guide his people on the path of freedom and salvation.” During Advent season, the Church, especially in her liturgy, encourages us to take a spiritual and moral inventory to be prepared and purified for the Nativity of Christ. That we may experience a “pass over” from darkness to light, from sadness and fear to the joy of the Incarnation and the freedom of salvation, the examination of conscience and confession of sin, makes us cooperators in the intentional healing that occurs with the Nativity of Jesus.

As we read in the Catechism, “a person’s conscience is our most secret core and our sanctuary. There we are alone with God whose voice echoes in our depths (1776).” When you are alone with God what “echoes” of His voice do you hear in your heart? Do you invite Jesus into the rooms of your heart that are messy or downright ugly? When you examine your conscience, are there areas in your life where you feel stuck in habitual sin? Human nature is fallen but we are not helpless.

Fallen man is self-centered; we orbit around ourselves instead of around God; and in this state we are in “enemy” territory. Satan is the Tempter (1 Thes. 3-5); and as he originated the fall of man, so he still directly influences us to reject grace and commit sin. This is his ordinary mode of action (1 John 3:8-10). The devil, by deception and psychic violence seeks to imprison us in his own separation from God. If an evil spirit tempts us to sin, if we yield to sin, how can we not be united with that evil spirit at some level? In Matthew’s Gospel (5:37) we learn, “Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.” Saying “no” to temptation is often very difficult because in truth, we do not want what God wants for us.

Most Reverend Robert Carlson’s Pastoral Letter on Penance entitled, “Jesus Christ, The Divine Physician,” quotes a reflection by Fr. Hans Urs von Balthasar, “Lord, Make Me Want!”

Sin is precisely this: that I do not want what God wants. And I can’t see how this opposition on my part could be broken. I can’t see how this prison wall, which holds me captive, could be pierced through. I know precisely what I ought to do. You’ve often told me yourself, the priest has told me, I have told myself. This, then, is not what is lacking. The will is lacking: the being able to want. There is a will in me that wants and there is another will in me (the same one!) that does not want. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate I do. I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. What a wretched man I am! Thus it is that I am rent apart in my innermost will. And this is why I cry out from the depths of my prison of unwilling, “Make me want!”

The effects of personal sin contribute to the increasing collective oppression that humanity experiences in this hour. What can be done then? We can ask the Holy Spirit to give us a deep and continual desire to want what God wants for us. We can implore the Holy Spirit to strengthen our will to practice habitual virtue instead of habitual vice. We can put on the full armor of God to resist the fiery darts of the evil one (Ephesians 6).

Advent is a time to de-clutter our heart to make room for the new arrival of Jesus Christ. We can be intentional about cooperating with grace to heal our sin sickness. I use the following list during retreats, and share it with the hope that it is helpful for some.

Examining 6 Areas for Intentional Healing

1. Your heart: are there areas within that are darkened by recurring anger, bitterness, envy, unruly competitiveness or resentment? Do you manage anger by “exploding” or “imploding”?  Possible roots of anger include: perfectionism, pride, control, envy, insecurity, unrealistic expectations leading to disappointment and negativity. Invite Christ to come into the messy areas of your heart to transform them.
2. Relationships:  Is there someone you need to forgive? Is there someone you need to ask forgiveness from? Are you striving to love the most difficult people in your life, or do you simply avoid them? Are you in relationships that are disordered, illicit, co-dependent and not of God? Do you live in fear of what others think all the time? Are you true to God, yourself, family, and friends? Invite Christ to be the center of all your relationships, and to heal them according to His will.
3. Idols: What catches your eye in life? What or who dominates your thoughts? It is obsessive preoccupation, escapism, or addiction to shopping, television, Internet, gambling, food, alcohol, sex, travel, recreation, sports, exercise, or work? Are you impulsive, compulsive, obsessive and out of control in any of these areas? What would it mean if these areas were to become balanced according to God’s will? Possible root causes include: boredom, frustration, loneliness, self-sabotage, escapism. Invite Christ into the areas of disorder and ask Him to heal the root cause of the symptoms for complete renewal.
4. Lust:  Do you watch programs on TV, explore the Internet or read books that are inappropriate?  Does this lead to unwanted, sinful thoughts and behaviors?  Possible root causes include: 1) your longing for God has shifted to lust, 2) lack of contentment is feeding a need for immediate gratification or perpetual excitement, 3) lack of self-control and immaturity can lead to rebellion and flippant disregard for God’s law of love that requires purity of life. Ask the Immaculate Conception to defend you in the battle and help you to attain purity of life. Be pro-active in finding resources to help you.
5. Laziness (sloth):  Are you lazy in areas of personal health, family relationships, or work? Are you slothful in seeking God or being attentive to your spiritual life? Root causes may include: lack of self-discipline, immaturity, low self-esteem, selfishness, or lack of integrity. Invite the Holy Spirit to fill you with the dynamism of Divine Love. Seek to renew your relationship with Christ, especially in the Eucharist.
6. Intellectual Pride: Are you stubborn, controlling, insensitive, cynical, contentious, opinionated and slow to say you that you are wrong?  Do you judge others harshly simply by appearance? Intellectual pride has a need to always be right whereas humility admits mistakes and readily confesses faults.  Possible root causes includes: unruly egoism, selfishness, poor self-image, fear and insecurity. Invite Christ into your intellect and will to heal the root cause of any intellectual pride and ask for the grace and virtue of humility.

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Another Miracle at Medjugorje?

The following comes from The Medjugorje Message:

An Italian woman named as Gigliola Candian claims that she was healed of multiple sclerosis at Medjugorje last Saturday. The 48-year-old from Fossò, near Venice, explained that she had been suffering with MS for the past 10 years and had been in a wheelchair since last year. “I had accepted my illness and I never asked Our Lady to cure me.” 

About the claimed cure Gigliola says, “I was praying with a group of people in church and Jesus spoke to my heart. He said, ‘Do your trust me?’ I said I did and he replied, ‘Then walk!’ I felt tingling and a great heat in my legs and then saw a bright light in front of me. From that moment I realised I could walk and got up.” 

Since returning home Gigliola says she continues to gain strength and make progress, and is now able to take short daily walks alone without the use of her wheelchair.

Hat tip to In God's Company 2!