Come. Now is the Time to Worship.

By Melanie Jean Juneau

St. Augustine, artist unknown
(Wikimedia Commons).

Almighty God,
you have made us for yourself,
and our hearts are restless
till they find their rest in you;
so lead us by your Spirit
that in this life we may live to your glory
and in the life to come enjoy you for ever;

Last night I attended a mass, followed by  healing prayer led by Fr. Albert MacPherson. For over 30 years, Father Albert MacPherson, O.S.A., has traveled the globe on a healing mission. He takes his special healing ministry to parishes and provides parish communities with healing Masses and retreats.

After mass, dressed in a black cassock, using holy water, blessed salt, holy oil and traditional prayers of the Church, Father simply blesses the people with God performing wonderful miracles in his wake.


Continue reading at Melanie's blog joy of nine9.

The unholy mirror

By Mary N. 

The Broken Mirror by Greuze (Wikimedia Commons)

When I write about healing in my posts I am usually talking about spiritual healing. Physical healing is wonderful but many times it's simply the byproduct of a much deeper inner healing. Sometimes we block God's healing - in my own life one of the greatest stumbling blocks to healing was and is myself. As this stumbling block is moved out of the way the spiritual healing my soul needs has sped up.

One of the more common stumbling blocks to healing is self-hatred. The wrong kind of self-hatred. We aren't talking about the self-hatred the saints speak about here that's aimed at the false self. We're talking about a very real hatred/dislike of oneself. And it comes about through looking at yourself in an unholy mirror.

What is this unholy mirror?


Continue reading at Mary's blog The Beautiful Gate.

The five effects of grace

By Nancy Ward 

God is able to make every grace abundant for you, so that in all things, always having all you need, you may have an abundance for every good work, (2 Corinthians 9:8).

Grace is powerful, plentiful, essential and effective. Through the gift of faith, we receive this unearned, undeserved gift of God’s love manifested in Christ’s salvation.

We need never fear the Author of Grace who seeks us out with a love that no power on earth can weaken or destroy. Driven by his unconditional love, he pursues a love relationship with us. By his nature he pours out his love. He can’t not love what he created.

That is why he is still alive in the world today and why so many love him.  People still renounce their possessions out of love for him, still surrender everything to him, and still build their daily lives around receiving his life in the sacraments. His pursuit of us makes him a sign of contradiction in our times. Few people are neutral about him. They either intensely love him or hate him. Still he pursues us, pouring out his love, offering the grace of salvation until our last breath.



Continue reading at Nancy's blog JOY Alive in our hearts.

Tools for emotional healing

by Mary N.

Christ Healing the Mother-in-law of Simon Peter by John Bridges (Photo: Wikimedia Commons).

God wants to heal us. If there is one thing I've learned over the years it is that God desires to heal us more than we desire it ourselves. Christ came to heal the wounds of sin and this healing begins in time. That may seem pretty obvious to many but you'd be surprised at what I hear at times. One of the oddest is that we aren't healed until we reach Heaven. Yes, I've heard this statement a few times too often. Until that time we are left to our own devices. When I think about it I realize that this type of thinking makes God seem...well...

...stingy.

 As if He withholds healing and grace at whim depending on his mood that day.

Yikes!

That sounds more like us, if you ask me.

Many times we are blocking the healing in some way. We may not like to hear that we still have a lot of inner work that needs to be done.

Pride may be a factor.

We are impatient and want God to heal us instantly but very often we need to learn things about ourselves first. What if He gave you an enormous healing but because you have certain patterns of behavior or thinking that aren't healthy you end up right back where you started? Wouldn't that be worst? God wants to heal us...but He wants it to stick.

God's not going to heal an area that you refuse to let Him touch so the first thing to do is to invite Him into the area you are asking Him to heal. A simple prayer like this is fine:

Jesus, I am in deep need of emotional healing and I ask you to begin to bring healing to this area of my life. Today, I place my emotions under your gentle mastery and I  place my trust in your healing love.

Here are some things to consider:

~ Naming your emotions - This is very important for those who have suppressed their emotions for years.   The first step in naming your emotions isn't so much getting this right as it is becoming aware that you have emotions...and very strong ones at that.

~ Feeling these emotions and bringing them  to God in prayer. If I cannot do this during the course of the  day then I do it at bedtime when I go over my day with the Lord.

~Pay attention to your emotional responses to others. Years ago, the Lord made me aware that I sometimes used my emotions to manipulate others instead of speaking clearly and addressing the problem.

~ Many of us were taught that certain emotions were sinful and this is why we suppressed them. Though our brain may tell us it's ridiculous, we automatically feel guilt when we become angry. If you look back  into your earlier years you may find that this is a conditioned response. Anger in itself is not a sin - it's what you do with the anger that becomes the problem (taking it out on others, sitting and stewing in it).



Continue reading at Mary's blog  The Beautiful Gate