BOOK Summary Healing As a Parish Ministry: Mending Body, Mind and SpiritBy Fr. Leo Thomas and Jan Alkire (2000)

Chapter 1 Healing in the Parish1. The absence of healing ministry at the parish level deprives people of access to the healing power of Christ. Jesus commissioned his disciples to “cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out devils. (Matthew 10:8) Most of today’s Christians lack an experience of God meeting these needs in their lives.2. We who are members of the Body of Christ must begin to offer help to those suffering in our midst. We need to bring sufferers into the presence of God, where they can be healed. Their suffering may be physical, emotional, spiritual or relational. Our God and Savior wants to heal them all. p.123. The Neglected Sacrament – the Church teaches that Christ is truly present in the sacraments. They make Christ literally here today for us, his followers. Anointing of the Sick exists to make Christ present to Christians in the midst of their sickness. When He becomes real to them in their need, much healing occurs. Evil is defeated and they experience new wholeness, as Jesus’s words come to life. “I’ve come so that they may have life and have it to the full. John 10:104. It is difficult to experience fullness of life when you are doubled over with arthritic pain, addicted to alcohol, or paralyzed by memories of childhood sexual abuse. To those who are suffering, Jesus’s promise of fullness of life seems like, at best, promise of happiness in heaven… People’s needs for healing are going unmet because pastoral care to the sick is woefully inadequate in the Church today. p. 15.5. The sacrament of Anointing of the Sick is often misunderstood because people don’t know the meaning of healing from a religious perspective. 6. To Jesus, “health” means much more than the absence of sickness. It means the wholeness of God. In fact, the word salvation comes from the Latin word “salus”, which means health. Administered well, the sacrament of Anointing of the sick always empowers a person to move closer to God’s fullness – to salvation. Something good always happens when this rite is done well. The sacrament of the Anointing of the sick, like the other sacraments, needs to be administered and supported within the context of a faith community.7. All members of the Body of Christ are called to bring God’s healing touch to hurting people.

Chapter 2 Two Spiritualties1. As Catholics we do not limit ourselves to a “me and Jesus” spirituality. We recognize that we are members of the Body of Christ. God calls each of us into intimacy with Him, but that intimacy would not exist without others. We are Christians precisely because we belong to the Church. p. 252. We are all bonded together in Jesus Christ.3. Ministers who see the Church as the Body of Christ treat the recipient of a ministry as a valued member of that body. He is an equal participant in the process of healing. This attitude counters the temptation to put the supplicant in an inferior position while elevating the minister. The supplicant is as much a member of the Body of Christ as other ministers. Therefore, she must take an active role in her own healing.4. The institutional Church must involve itself in healing ministry. It needs to discern who is called to ministry, organize the training and supervise the ministry itself. Christ uses ordained ministers to organize the many ministries of the Body. 5. Healing ministry that takes place within the Body of Christ is “ordinary.” Supplicants receive support much as they do in other types of pastoral care, for example, counseling, instruction, comforting. They can pray with parish-based ministers on a regular basis for as long as needed. The ministers are accessible and come to know – and love – the supplicant.6. Jesus Christ asked us, the members of his Body, the Church, to participate in his task of re-creating the universe. Alone, we can’t succeed; together, we can’t fail.

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Chapter 3 What Is Health?Health is the goal in healing ministry, but what is the religious meaning of health? p.351. Physicians see disease as a malfunctioning of biological or psychological processes. They use the word “health” to indicate freedom from disease. For them, health is a static state, and disease is a departure from that state.

2. Illness, on the other hand, is the experience of disease. It is created by patient’s reaction to disease. “Disease is something an organ has; illness is something a man has.”3. This distinction impacts treatment and reveals the contrast between curing and healing. Once disease is conquered it is cured. When healing takes place it is a person that is healed.4. Holistic medicine treats the whole person and not just the disease.5. The religious meaning of health and healing is sharing in the wholeness of God. 6. Bringing a person into the wholeness of God is the ultimate call of healing ministry. 7. Becoming sharers in the wholeness of God is a lifelong process. It is our spiritual journey and it involves every dimension of our being. Our transformation will be complete when we see God face to face.

Chapter 4 Ministry: “Here I Am, Send Me!” A. Who is called to ministry? p. 471. The Church is a community with a mission from Christ. The disciples of Jesus, members of the Church, are first called then sent. Being sent forth is an essential part of our reason for being called by Jesus Christ To be his followers. 2. The Lord calls us and sends us out to help bring forth his kingdom. The “kingdom” is a word for the loving, active plan of God in history. God’s gracious plan challenges and transforms all it touches.3. Jesus actively showed people what he meant when he proclaimed that the kingdom of God is at hand. 4. One of the ways he did this was through his healing ministry. Whenever he healed someone, he was saying by his actions “This is the kingdom of God.”5. Our prayer ministry of healing is a continuation of Jesus’s ministry of healing. Healing moments make us aware that the kingdom of God is here, now, today. God asks us to work with him in bringing about his plan.6. Faced with the challenges of our world, the dream of helping to bring about the kingdom of God may seem like a nightmare. Jesus encountered the same evil 2000 years ago. He came and suffered because he loves us unconditionally. And Jesus said “yes” to paying the price for that love.7. Jesus calls each of us to carry the cross of caring for a wounded world. “If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, he must renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Matthew 16:24

B. What is the cost of ministry? When we decide to renounce ourselves, take up our cross and follow Jesus, we can expect to pay a price in at least two ways: – the price of time & energy and the price of holiness.

1. The price of time and energy. We must anticipate that bringing the love of God to others will cost us time consuming, physical, emotional and spiritual energy. We cannot “reflect the Lord” unless we know Him. We must have a vivid, personal relationship with Jesus, a relationship we experience at every level of our being. Jesus longs for the same friendship with us that he had with his first disciples, one that grows ever deeper with each passing year. Ministry arises from the depths of this one-to-one relationship with Jesus. When we are faith-filled people, we begin to think as God things because “we are those who have the mind of Christ.” 1 Corinthians 2:16

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2. The price of holinessGod calls us to personal conversion, to reach our full potential. a.This means becoming holy by living in total union with Christ. b.Holiness always leads us to an experience of our spiritual poverty and recognize our sinfulness. We learn the truth – “Lord I am not worthy to receive you – or serve you.”c.When we serve God in spite of our unworthiness the Lord will show us levels of spiritual poverty within ourselves that we never suspected.d. This revelation will help us grow in holiness. We will come to know that God is with us even in our mistakes. As we stay close to him, we will encounter God’s infinite power to turn our mistakes and failings into something glorious for the sake of His kingdom.e.Holiness is painful because it requires compassion.

C. A heart of compassion A heart of compassion will show us that the kingdom of darkness still strives to keep the world nailed to a cross. 1. We will encounter the darkness of evil if we are willing to join people in their pain. 2. God wants to give us his heart of compassion so that we can bring love and healing were now we find hatred and pain.3. Compassion is not phony cheerfulness. Using artificial comfort and platitudes to protect ourselves from other people’s pain does them a great disservice. Genuine com-passion means “suffering with” the sufferer.4. In becoming the compassionate people Jesus is calling us to be we will encounter resistance even from family and friends. But have courage! Some of Jesus’s own family members said that he was “out of his mind.” Mark 3:215. Holiness and compassion eventually bring us face-to-face with evil. The sheer magnitude of its presence in today’s world can overwhelm us. But we must remember that Jesus robbed Satan of his power over death when he died on the cross. Our baptism into the death and resurrection of Christ gives us the power to confront evil without being destroyed. With the psalmist we can say “I fear no evil for you are at my side.” Psalm 23:46. Many people experience evil in the form of indirect opposition to ministry – unexpected complications, temptations, distractions in prayer, etc. 7. We who minister religious healing need not crumble in the face of this reality. Instead we should pray for protection from evil on behalf of ourselves and our loved ones. This will diminish much of its power – but not all of it. The more we serve Christ the more we threat the kingdom of darkness. Evil will oppose our ministry in the hopes of getting us to quit. Jesus has told us that this resistance comes with the job description of being his disciple: “if they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.” John 15:20

D. The privilege of mission – “Behold, I am with you always; yes, to the end of time.” Matthew 28:201. As we serve Jesus we have the blessing of knowing that our Lord and Savior is with us always and in every circumstance. 2. We need to remember what an honor it is to share in his work of fulfilling the Father’s plan for creation. Nothing else we could ever do can be greater than serving Jesus Christ our Lord.3. We will experience the privilege of ministry when we join people during a profound phase of their journey with God. 4. Sharing with those who are at a difficult time of their lives is like assisting at a birth – the birth of new life that will endure for all eternity, the birth of a child of God into more and more of God’s fullness. 5. Through ministry, we ourselves experience God’s love in a very specific and particular way. Ministry helps us to grow in our knowledge of the Lord.6. God asked us to unite ourselves with him in a sacred task – in spite of our weaknesses, in spite of the sacrifices, in spite of our feelings of unworthiness. He asks, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” We are asked us to respond with Isaiah, “Here I am. Send me.” Isaiah 6:9

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SummaryA. The Church is a community with the mission of carrying on the task given to Jesus by the Father to bring forth the kingdom of God. Christians are first called then sent forth to minister God’s healing love to renew the world.B. Ministry has two costs: – The price of time & energy and the price of holiness, which includes experiencing our spiritual poverty, the disapproval of others and the reality of evil.C. We must have a heart of compassion.D. Ministry is also a privilege: – God is with us at all times. We join people during a phase of their journey with God. We share in fulfilling God’s plan for creation.

Chapter 5 The Power of CommunityWhy are prayer teams a powerful source for healing wounds and how do teams function?

1. We cannot be fully human without a membership in some organized group. This is the source of the power that communities wield over us. Even the strong and robust need community just to gain a sense of being alive.2. Communities give individuals their worldview, sense of how the world works. This includes moral values, religious ideas, ideas about health and sickness, attitudes about relationships and perspectives about the environment.3. The Body of Christ is a faith community, not just a belief system. People who belong to the Body of Christ learn to accept that the Church is comprised of both saints and sinners. p. 634. Many sources of healing exist within the Body of Christ. The sacraments are some of the most potent ones. Another source of healing is a healing prayer team.

The Prayer Team: An Overview1. A prayer team consists of 2 to 4 people who function as a unit ministering religious healing. Both men and women should be represented on a team because each possesses unique gifts.2. Every team member has been given gifts by the Holy Spirit and the combination of these gifts exceeds the sum of the individual ones. 3. Every team, with its mixture of talents, personalities and special gifts, makes Christ present was supplicant more effectively than any one member could do alone.4. To reach their fullest power, prayer teams need to feel called by God to this ministry as individuals and as a team. The most effective teams work as a unit for an extended time. 5. Teams minister to supplicants who request prayer for physical, emotional, spiritual or relational problems. The session last for about an hour and normally a team meets with the supplicant a few times. 6. This extended time period is important because healing is a journey, not a onetime treatment. Accompanying supplicants on a journey towards wholeness increases the likelihood that their healing will last for all eternity.7. During ministry sessions, one person functions as a leader the rest as intercessors. Team members support the leader, while the leader’s main job is to coordinate the exercise of the gifts that the Holy Spirit has given to each member.8. The team’s support for one another creates a unity that possesses great power. The dynamic flows from members to leader, from leader to members, and amongst the entire team, including the supplicant. Bonds of love grow from this respect. This is the love that heals. P. 66 9. A team’s ultimate source of unity lies in each person’s relationship with Jesus.10. The prayer team’s primary task is to make God real to the supplicant.11. The first step to achieving this goal is to establish a relationship with the supplicant characterized by warmth, empathy and sincerity.

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The Power of a Prayer Team1. The power of prayer team stems from its being a small Christian community – a cell in the Body of Christ. It is a community that knows its power and has consciously decided to use it to heal others. It invites people into its midst for a while so that they can get well.2. Prayer teams possess one underlying power that heals people: the power of love. When a small community devotes its energies to caring for the needs of an individual, asking for nothing in return – no fee, no required membership in the organization, no exploitation of the person’s vulnerability – the experience heals. Few people ever receive this type of attention and acceptance even in Christian circles. When a community does love someone in this fashion, the person is transformed.3. The scarcity of prayer teams and the rarity of healings are due to the fact that love is a burden that many people are unwilling to bear. Yet if we accept the burden, healing will occur.

The Five Powers of the Love we are called to share

1. The power of hospitality. “I was a stranger and you made me welcome…” Matthew 25:33Because we are relational creatures, our spiritual and emotional survival depends upon the willingness of others to offer us hospitality. At certain moments we cannot make it without the help of others. It is at these times that God asks Christians to take strangers into their hearts, to love them and heal them so that they can go forward, restored, to continue their journey through life.The power of hospitality is the power of love. When prayer teams offer the supplicant hospitality this act in itself is healing. By welcoming a hurting person into their hearts, team members remove isolation, helplessness and hopelessness – three of the major blocks to healing.

2. The power of pastoral listening. In order to welcome someone into our hearts we must truly listen to them. We cannot know God’s will for us supplicant if we fail to listen to their expressed needs. True pastoral listing requires selflessness. It requires that we avoid the temptation of trying to fix the other person and their problem. When members of the Body of Christ make themselves fully present out of love this enables supplicants to feel that they have been heard not just by the team but by God. They have an experience of a “listening” God who truly knows their needs and is with them in that need. This experience of being truly listened to is by itself healing for the recipient.

3. The power of expectation. Few people are healed without first expecting that something good will happen to them. Usually that expectation must come from sources outside themselves. In the medical field that comes from physician and other caregivers. In religious healing it needs to come from the prayer ministers. Because the prayer team is a cell in the Body of Christ, supplicants usually see the team’s expectation as carrying the authority of God. They start looking at themselves, God, events, illness, etc. the way the team does. This fact highlights the critical importance for the teams world view to conform with Christ’s. As St. Paul tells us, we must “put on the mind of Christ.” Nowhere is that more critical than in seeing God’s expectations for each individual who needs healing. Teams that discern and express God’s expectation for a particular supplicant transmit a powerful force. Teams should know what it’s expectations are. This requires prayer and openness among team members and reflection on their ministry. Knowing what it expects helps the team to reject those expectations that do not reflect God’s will and embrace those that do. A team that identifies God specific desires for each supplicant is a team with a powerful ministry.

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Chapter 6 Healing Ministry Is Worship

1. Worship in its broadest sense enables a person or community come before God with a need and in the midst of praise and thanksgiving, to experience God meeting them. As a result of this personal encounter with God, the worshiper is transformed in some way. Transformation is precisely the purpose of the ministry of religious healing. p. 782. Practiced as worship, healing ministry liberates us from performance pressure, avoids practicing medicine, and takes us beyond counseling or mere petitions. It focuses on God, unites us with the Body of Christ and fills us with praise and thanksgiving.3. A temptation in healing ministry is to become goal oriented, focusing on curing or fixing. Objectives like this are not enough to experience the transformation into the wholeness that God intends for us. We need worship that brings us into the presence of the one who heals.

4. How to Make Healing Ministry an Experience of WorshipA. Create a sacred place with religious art, candles, a Bible etc.B. Gather as the Body of Christ to focus on a supplicant and her needs. We place this person, her needs and ourselves before God, who uses us and our gifts to bring his grace into that need. A common way to begin a gathering is with music and simple songs. Songs and the Lord’s prayer help us to glorify God.C. Pray acknowledging the Lord’s presence. We must make God real to our supplicants so that they can experience his love and ca in the midst of their pain. Scripture creates a powerful awareness of God’s presence. “For where two or three gather in my name, I am there among them.” Matthew 18:20 this verse is helpful at the beginning of a healing ministry session because it reminds us of the promise of Jesus to be present to us! This awareness raises everyone’s expectant faith.D. Listening to the prayer request. At the initial meeting the team leader asks the supplicant why they are requesting prayer. A team that listens well can empathize with the supplicant and established rapport with them in a surprisingly short time. Some supplicants experience healing just because we listen to them! In our society there are many people who have never felt truly listened to in their lives. The healing prayer team gives them a priceless gift when they give the person full and loving attention.E. Discernment. The hallmark of effective prayer ministry is accepting people where they are and journeying with them to a deeper encounter with God. In discernment, we place ourselves and our supplicants in God’s hands. We listen simultaneously to the Lord, our team members, to the supplicant and to our inner selves. Good listening skills give us the ability to sort through what is stated by the supplicant and focus on the real issues. Once the door has been open to God, wonders can happen. With this knowledge, we progress to the next step in making healing ministry and experience of worship.

5. Enter into the heart of worshipIn the healing ministry, the heart of worship is a prayer service tailor-made for the supplicant with this need at this moment. We ask that God’s grace flow through us. God is truly present within us and wants to use us as channels of his healing grace. We share in his healing work when we become fully present to God and fully present to the supplicant. In deep worship, God’s power flows through us and his healing occur. Many prayer forms can be used.A. Praise and thanksgiving. A common mistake in the healing ministry is to restrict prayer to simply petition (“Lord, heal Joe’s back”). When healing ministry is worship, praise spills out – praise for God’s past and present blessings, or his presence in the current need, the supplicant’s inner beauty, etc. This brings God’s power into the healing session because in the words of the Psalmist, “the Lord inhabits the praises of his people.”B. Prophecy. Through prophecy a team member feels inspired to speak to the supplicant with an “I” statement as though with God’s voice. The prophecy brings hope and comfort to the supplicant because of a deep, personal way, it says, “I, the Lord, am with you. I love you.” Often prophecy takes the form of

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a Scripture passage that applies directly to the needs of the supplicant. Scripture verses that speak words of love and mercy have a powerful impact because the word of God suddenly becomes real this moment in this need.C. Prayer of affirmation. Team members pray to God in thanksgiving for the positive traits of the supplicant. Example: “Thank you, the Lord, for how June loves her family.” Prayers of affirmation transform supplicants because they begin to see themselves as God sees them.D. Prayers of intercession. When intercession is a part of worship, team members unite themselves with the supplicant and the channel opens for God to work through us. But if intercession becomes the only form of prayer for healing, ministry degenerates into presenting the shopping list of requests to God. The healing that flows from worship comes from God as the source with the team as its agents. Just as the vine needs branches to bear fruit, God and the team work as one to bring about healing.E. Praying with imagery. pp. 85-87Example – supplicants may be asked about their images of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Based on their responses, the prayer team may suggest other images of Scripture which convey God’s healing well. Prayer teams need to discover what the image the supplicant has of God. Praying with images brings God into a supplicant’s mind and allows her to think in new ways. Imagery is a potent prayer form for all kinds of healing – emotional, spiritual, physical and relational.Specific techniques vary according to the supplicant, the primary sense she uses the type of healing needed. p. 87.F. Cautions. Don’t go beyond the limitations of the supplicant. 1. Some supplicants may be limited in their openness to new prayer forms and will feel uncomfortable with certain kinds of prayer. Prophecy will puzzle someone who is unfamiliar with its proper use. Praying with imagery might scare someone who was uncomfortable with an intimate God. So use all prayer forms with sensitivity. 2. Lack of time hampers our ability to do in-depth ministry with some supplicants. We must not open doors we cannot close! The deep healing that a person may need to experience cannot be rushed and they may need to be referred to professional counselors.3. Supplicants can be limited in their ability to handle what is revealed in the healing prayer process. People can only bear so much growth in a given time. Forcing someone beyond his limits can be counterproductive and damaging to the person.4. Realism is crucial in the healing prayer process. The team must consider what is possible for the supplicant at this time. Sometimes God’s healing power is blocked by a lack of readiness in the supplicant. No one reaches God’s wholeness instantly or completely, so specific healing may not be feasible in a given situation at a given moment in time. Example – the damaging effects of addictions cannot be healed before the addiction itself is healed.

6. Bringing worship to a close.As with any worship service, the healing prayer service should be gradually brought to a close. A. Ending the healing prayer session includes giving praise to God for the good that he has done during the session. A time of prayer “seals” the healing. Praise puts the finishing touches on worship and healing and increases the chances that healing will last.B. Seek feedback from the supplicant. What was helpful? What was unhelpful? Feedback clears up questions or misconceptions.C. Planning for the future. If the supplicants are to receive more healing prayer then the sessions need to be scheduled. If no further sessions are planned, do they need a referral to someone else for follow-up care? The “someone else” may be a priest, a physician, psychologist, another prayer team (Unbound ministry) or 12 step programs.D. Saying goodbye. Supplicants need to know that they will not be forgotten. They need assurances of continued prayers. Some prayer teams demonstrate this assurance by giving supplicants a token to take

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with them, such as a holy card with a Scripture verse. A brief prayer for God’s protection is especially good way to send off the supplicants.

Criteria for Evaluating Success/Failure in MinistryThe goal of healing prayer ministry is to bring people into God’s own wholeness. Keeping that goal in mind removes the urge to obsess on results and helps us look beyond the present. There are three questions that team should ask in judging the success or failure of their healing prayer ministry with an individual supplicant.

1. Has God become real to the supplicant?A. This is the key criteria. Making God real to the supplicant is why healing prayer ministry belongs in the category of worship instead of medical care. If God becomes experientially real, the ministry is a success. If God doesn’t become more real the ministry was a failure. In other words, healing comes from God and should lead to God.B. When God becomes real to supplicants, they grow in their the personal relationship with their Creator and Savior. What previously may have been only an intellectual assent to dogma becomes an intimate, felt encounter. Healing ministry that helps bridge the chasm between head and heart is always a success, even if nothing else appears to happen.C. When supplicants have a personal encounter with God they experience being cared for by him. They come to see themselves as beloved children of a loving Father. Regardless of any other tangible results, they lose their sense of isolation as they experience the reality of Jesus’s promise: “I am with you always.” Matthew 28:20 Often the experience of being cared for by God is mediated by the team.D. Another sign of success in the healing ministry is increased unity with the Body of Christ. Alienated Christians come back into their faith community, shut-ins feel less isolated, caregivers of shut-ins feel supported by the parish. Anytime a prayer team draws these people into the body of Christ, the ministry is a success.

1. Is the illness healed?A. Healing ministry strives to heal illness, which is a person’s experience of disease. Keeping this in mind, ministry succeeds if it increases a supplicant’s hope and reduces his feelings of alienation that are the result of being sick. It also succeeds if it helps him sort out his feelings about having the disease.B. Healing an illness may or may not include curing disease. For example, a terminally ill cancer patient may still die. But he can be healed of the illness of having a terminal disease. Rather than viewing himself as a dying person and a cancer patient, he can grow to see himself as a devoted husband, father, grandfather as well as a vital member of the body of Christ. In the process of the ministry the person may experience deep spiritual healing and find himself closer to God than he had been prior to his illness.

1. Is the disease cured?Diseases are cured through healing ministry; frequently this is an outcome of healing an illness. Sometimes the disease is not completely cured, but it symptoms abate. Other times a person receiving medical treatment for cancer is freed from the side effects of the treatment. Still other times, disease is not cured but the supplicant experiences relief from pain. Relief from pain means release from mind-blurring drugs. The dying person can spend his last days wrapping up his affairs and saying goodbye to loved ones.

Symptom abatement, freedom from side effects of treatment, release from pain: none of these is a “cure,” but each is a form of healing. Each is a success.

Conclusion

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A. Jesus failed in some of his healing ministry and so will we. In his healings he tried to lead people into an experience of God. Sometimes they missed the experience. For example, in the story of the Ten lepers, ten people were cured, but only one was healed, that is came to share in the wholeness of God. Jesus’s ministry to nine of the ten lepers was a failure. Because of the limitations they put on the experience, God did not become real to them. They were only open to receiving a change in their skin condition. Luke 17:11B. Ministry can be a success even in the absence of a cure. If we keep our eyes fixed on worship, we let go of “making” cures happen. Our focus changes from results to enabling people to grow into God’s fullness. Whenever we bring people into an experience of God’s presence, our ministry succeeds, regardless of other outcomes.

SummaryHealing ministry is worship, and our goal as ministers is to create a worship experience for supplicants to bring them into an awareness of God’s presence in their need. Successful worship and healing ministry involves six ingredients:1. Create a sacred space. 2. Gather as the Body of Christ.3. Foster an awareness of God’s presence.4. Focus on the supplicant’s need.5. Enter into the heart of worship.6. Bring worship to a close.

When healing ministry is worship, our criteria for success and failure differ from those of the medical community. To evaluate ministry success, we ask three questions in descending order of importance:

1. Has God become more real to the supplicant?2. Is the illness healed?3. Is the disease cured?

Chapter 7 Eight PitfallsWhat are the pitfalls that afflict ministers? (Examples are offered PP. 93-110

Conclusion pp. 110-113Healing prayer ministers must be psychologically whole in order to resist the pitfalls that come with healing ministry. Many people are attracted to this field because they are not emotionally well; without meaning harm, they create more pain than the alleviate.

Persons who place themselves in God’s service in the healing prayer ministry will fail from time to time. Failures can lead to increased wisdom, humility, compassion and empathy. Even in failure one fact remains: God always shows up. He never fails to be present in ministry.

1. The first pitfall to avoid is excessive individualism, i,e. a Lone Ranger approach to ministry.2. The second pitfall is escapism, immersing oneself in ministry while neglecting primary responsibilities to one’s marriage, family, etc.3. Lack of personal prayer. Discipline in one’s spiritual life is essential for any type ministry.

Daily prayer must be a priority.

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4. Moralizing. Being judgmental of supplicants. Using prayer to preach to them. Those involved in healing prayer ministry must respect the sacredness of each person spiritual journey.5. Advice-giving. Giving into the temptation to try to solve others’ problems for them. The role of healing prayer ministers is to lead supplicants to Jesus who alone is Lord.6. Over-identification. Healing prayer ministers must not become absorbed in the supplicant’s pain. They must practice the virtue of hope and have the ability to focus on the Lord and his healing plan.7. Over-timidity. Focusing on feelings of inadequacy and the fear of making a mistake can undermine the healing prayer process.8. Pursuing one’s own agenda. Rigidity and black-and-white thinking that blocks discernment.

Chapter 8 The Spirituality of the Supplicantcase studies pages 115-132

SummaryThe spirituality of the supplicant plays a key part in prayer ministry. The following are traits, behaviors and attitudes that help supplicants journey towards transformation into God’s wholeness.

1. They recognize the need for conversion, the need to change in some way – behavior, attitudes, health, relationships.2. They are motivated to take the strenuous journey towards wholeness.3. They cooperate in their own healing and overcome the fear of loss of autonomy.4. They trust God and that he not to harm them.5. They are willing to experience heightened emotions.6. They are open to receiving help from God through others, including the prayer team.7. They have the ability to establish a committed relationship with the team.8. They have enough trust to disclose information that is important to their healing process.9. They are willing to be active participants in their own healing, a process that may include physical, emotional, spiritual and relational healing.10. They are willing to share their feelings with the team, emptying themselves of their inner pain so as to expose it to the healing light of Christ.11. They believe the prayer team can help them.12. They believe the prayer team wants to help them.

Chapter 9 The Enemy WithinWhat is the enemy within each supplicant that needs to be conquered?

Demoralization is the greatest enemy to well-being that we face in ministering healing prayer. Whatever we can do to combat it will vastly improve the supplicant’s growth towards wholeness. Supplicants who seek prayer ministry vary in their severity of emotional, spiritual, or physical pain. Typically they still function normally at work and sometimes at home. They smile and carry on social conversations when they need to, but their smiles veil an aching aloneness. They

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feel helpless because they have lost hope that they can cope with their hearts by themselves. Unless the team is sensitized to their secret pain, the mask can fool us.

Fighting DemoralizationHopelessness + helplessness + isolation= Demoralization

Hopelessness versus Hope. A, Hopelessness is the inability to imagine a tolerable future. Hope is an essential ingredient of life. B. Hope is a surrender in faith to God’s existence, wisdom, power and, most of all, his love. God invites us to say yes to an imaginable future with the only guarantee is that he will be with us.C. Surrender is not the passivity of fatalism that says “There’s nothing that I can do…” Yielding to God requires action, both by ministers and supplicants. Jesus involved the sick in their own healing. Even Lazarus had to walk out of the tomb when Jesus raised him from the dead. D. Saying yes to the will of God calls for great activity on our part, but it flows from humility. Liberation from an “inescapable” situation is indeed given but must be actively received,E. Whenever team prays with the supplicant, it faces the challenge of active surrendering. Teams often yearn for more “spiritual power” in order to make the supplicant “have faith.” They may fantasize that if they could do one big prayer, the supplicant would be healed instantly. Lacking this quick, magic power they may feel overcome with feelings of hopelessness, deciding the supplicant is too difficult. When tempted to give up, teams need to pray for increase of hope, both for the supplicant and for themselves.F. The virtue of Christian hope is possible only in the context a relationship with God. Hope is given by the Holy Spirit, mediated by the Body of Christ, and received by the individual.

HelplessnessA. Helplessness is the feeling of being caught in an inescapable situation. We believe the situation is inescapable because, alone, we do not have the resources to escape.B. Hope and help are intertwined like partners in a marriage; you cannot think of hope without thinking of help, and help implies some resource outside of ourselves which will enable us to escape from the inescapable.C. Our culture promotes the idea that hope is self-generated, and that needing help is shameful. This life says the “truly strong” never need help. It denies the reality of our dependency on one another.D. Each person who comes for healing prayer ministry has reached the awareness that their inner resources are not enough. Most of them have some expectation that the healing prayer team can help. We must demonstrate that our ministry is capable of supplying that needed resource. Words are not enough. Supplicants must experience our help.

IsolationThe third element of demoralization is isolation. The cure for isolation lies in the power of community. In team ministry, a group of people lovingly enters into the alienating world of illness with the supplicant. Their response of hope and offer of help is a powerful means of combating isolation.

FaithA. The essence of Christian faith is a relationship with God. Christian faith is faith in Jesus Christ. It requires a personal relationship with the living Lord. The Christian is to have faith

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in Christ because he is the Lord. Faith means following Jesus Christ whether healing is gained or not.B. The faith required for healing is expectant trust in the Lord.C. Religious healing focuses on the person of Christ, not on a result.D. The faith that Jesus asks for is that act of trust and self-abandonment by which people no longer rely on their own strength but commit themselves to his power and guiding word. E. Since faith demands the sacrifice of the whole person, mind and heart, many people decline to make this sacrifice. F. Jesus holds up to us as a model of faith the centurion who abandoned himself to Jesus’s authority. The centurion was focused on the person of Jesus and not results.

Chapter 10 “Help My Lack of Trust!”How can ministers of pastoral care help conquer a supplicant’s hidden enemy?

“I do believe! Help my lack of trust!” Mark 9:24 The possessed boy’s father spoke for millions of people who do believe in Jesus’ power to heal but need help from the Body of Christ to increase their expectant trust about their own healing. It is the Church’s duty to call out expectant faith in all the healthy ways known to her. If this were done many who are sick would be healed.

Seven Ways to Raise Expectant Faith

1. Convey the prospect of help. Often, we experience relief from pain just by making an appointment to see a doctor. Knowing that help is available raises our expectant faith.

At that moment, we begin to get well.2. Get Supplicant to “Tell his/her story”A. Enabling supplicants to tell their story combats demoralization because it removes isolation and relieves their loneliness. B. When supplicants reveal their inner self to caring ministers, they allow the light of Christ shine into the confusion of their feelings. This in turn, mobilizes their expectation that help is forthcoming – from God, from others and from themselves.C. Telling their story help supplicants name previously unnamed facts, wounds or feelings. Often putting the name on something is the first step towards bring it under control. This method is used by Alcoholics Anonymous to combat the profound demoralization that alcoholics experience.D. The unfolding nature of telling one story underscores the fact that ministry is a dynamic process.E. Healing prayer team ministers never reach the point of figuring out someone. Surprises await at every session.

Demonstrate HelpSupplicants need to know that the healing prayer ministry can help them to heal. We demonstrate help by loving them.

Enable emotions

Teams can help supplicants experience their emotions. Creating a worship experience is one of most effective ways to achieve this goal. The teams’ genuineness and love convey the message that the supplicant’s emotions - joy, pain, sorrow, fear, anger and love- are

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God-given and acceptable. This removes the isolation of the feelings and opens the supplicant up to the healing touch of God.

Use SacramentalsA. Jesus often used physical items (sacramentals) to raise expectant faith of the sick. In John 9:6-7, when a blind man came to Jesus seeking healing, he made up a paste out of dirt and saliva, put the paste (one sacramental) on the man’s eyes, then told him to go wash in the pool of Siloam (another sacramental). Jesus used these physical elements in order to raise the blind man’s expectancy that healing was in the process of taking place.B. Sacramentals are physical symbols of God’s love and care and of his power to heal. People need the symbols because life occurs on more than a spiritual plane. It also takes place on physical, emotional and relational levels. A team’s belief in the power of sacramentals and the way they communicate that belief can build up a supplicant’s expectant faith. Used well, sacramentals can lift supplicants out of their feelings of hopelessness.

Instruct SupplicantsInstructing in the healing ministry comes in many shapes but with a single purpose: to change the supplicants wounded view of reality. These words of Jesus reflect our goal in instructing: “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:32.A. Exposing and refuting lives is one form of instructing. Very often those who are suffering need to be taught that they are not being punished by God.B. Giving information at teachable moments is another form of instructing. When they first come for prayer supplicants may only be ready to receive unconditional love. The team may need to wait for the right time in the person’s spiritual journey to offer them particular information.C. Helping supplicants locate and use other resources of help. For example, teaching someone how to read the Bible or approach the sacraments of Reconcilation and Communion so that their faith can continue to grow.D. Correcting unrealistic expectations that the supplicant may have of themselves or the prayer team.

Help Supplicants Recognize Changes That Take PlaceA. Something good always happens in good ministry. The challenge is for everyone to see that good and praise God for it.B. Supplicants may need help see all of the healings that occur especially if the one they were seeking has not been experienced by the end of the ministry sessionC. Discernment of results requires a plan for ministry. The plan starts with a long-range goal. Reaching the goal usually means implementing specific short range goals.D. Implementing plans in accomplishing short-term goals removes a key component in demoralization, the sense of helplessness, because something is being done. Because it’s being done with the team, it also removes the sense of isolation.E. Helping the supplicant to recognize the healing that has already taken place increases their expectancy that further healing will occur. The supplicant comes to understand that the changes that have occurred are the result of God’s loving, personal action.F. When acknowledging the positive changes that had taken place, we need to offer praise and thanksgiving to God. This points to the true source of the healing. It helps supplicants believe that God has personally touched them. This in turn, gives them an experience of hope in its most profound meeting. This hope increases people’s trust in the Lord and opens them to the fullness of life that God offers them.

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G. Cautions about raising Expectant Faith. Prayer teams need to have the spiritual maturity and discipline to resist the temptation to make hollow promises. In the presence of suffering, words like “everything will be okay” automatically rise to our lips. Such empty reassurances ignore the fact that what is possible in theory may not be possible in reality. Prayer teams may lack the time a supplicant needs for extensive ministry. Supplicants may live in surroundings that counteract God’s healing power. Factors like these should give us pause before we bypass discernment in our rush to relieve someone’s suffering.

Discerning results.

H. Sometimes at the end of ministry supplicant reports that ”nothing happened.” The team may need to help the supplicant clarify his expectations and identify changes that have taken place. Unrealistic and narrow expectations can blind the supplicant to God’s broader vision for his journey towards wholeness.I. Sometimes everyone concludes that indeed no change has taken place. Freely acknowledging the results allows everyone to ask the obvious question of why and seek the answer through prayer. Praying for discernment can deepen the team’s understanding of how to minister to the supplicant in this situation at this time. As with the rest of life, the path with victory often passes to a few valleys of failure.

ConclusionExpectant faith usually comes to people from outside themselves. It is not self-generated. Instead, it is a power that the body of Christ, the Church, possesses and must offer to those who are demoralized. Ministers of religious healing should not expect supplicants to magically “have faith.” Raising expectant faith is the team’s job. It is one of the most important tasks of the ministry. Like Jesus, we must do all we can to “help the lack of faith” that burdens supplicants.

Chapter 11 The problem of MiraclesWhy does the issue of miracles keep healing ministry out of parishes?

A. Religion gets into trouble whenever falls in love with the spectacular. Miracles are the sensational side of religious healing, and those who make them a central focus of the ministry have created havoc for all ministers of religious healing. The obsession with miracles takes people’s eyes of God and puts their focus on immediate results and onto “healers.” This generates a circus atmosphere instead of peace, order, and worship. It also leaves supplicants who don’t experience a miraculous healing feeling guilty for having somehow failed.B. The sensational easily moves into fraud for the sake of money or power.C. If our hearts are not set on God our ministry will fail in its mission to help people move forward on their spiritual journey. D. Focusing on miracles instead of on God may bring short-term, dramatic results, but in the long run it discredits ministry in the eyes the public and of church authorities.

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E. This in turn, keeps healing out of parishes because it scares people. To bring healing back into our faith communities we must see miracles in a new light. (See pages 157-165).

Conclusion

Religious healing has been pastorally ignored for several centuries. As a result, today’s parishioners lack an experience of God meeting them in their various needs for healing, especially physical and emotional healing.

Change in the current situation require great effort.

We must remember what the Body of Christ can do for hurting people. We have been given the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead.

May the eyes of [your] hearts be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope that belongs to his call, what are the riches of glory in his inheritance among the holy ones, and what is the surpassing greatness of his power for us who believe, in accord with the exercise of his great might, which he worked in Christ, raising him from the dead and seating him at his right hand in the heavens…Ephesians 1:18-20

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