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Scripture
"Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set
before you. Heal the sick in it and say to them,
'The kingdom of God has come near to you.’”
(Luke 10.8-9, ESV)
Commentary
Healing Prayer is prayer we offer for another or ourselves that God will bring enabling grace in time of need. Healing may be needed in body, mind, emotion, or spirit. Healing does not always mean cure. Rather, prayer can result in comfort, perseverance, patience, insight, and other much needed assistance in time of suffering or indecision. At times a Healing Prayer is given for the passage of a person through death and for the strength and comfort of family and friends to let the loved one go with their full blessing.
The New Testament word for healing is “salvation, wellness, wholeness.” Such wholeness touches every aspect of the human person. We may not discern all the ways the Healing Prayer has cooperated with the will of God, but we trust in the wisdom of God.
There are different ways of doing Healing Prayer. One way is laying on of hands. Another Healing Prayer is laying on of hands and anointing with oil. Often persons do Healing Prayer by an extemporaneous or written prayer. The following exercise represents Healing Prayer as a form of Imaginative Prayer. While the exercise is for persons not present, the exercise is easily adaptable for use in regard to persons present or oneself.
Recall, Healing Prayer is your opening for the Divine Presence to work. Healing prayer, therefore, can be brief, for the Divine Presence already knows what is most needed and will act in grace. For example, if praying for someone who is absent, a short prayer like the following is appropriate: “Wonderful Presence, I offer to You [Name], may Your grace bring [her, him] wholeness, comfort, and strength in body, mind, and spirit. Amen.” Another sample of healing prayer, when a person is present, is, “[Name], may the Spirit of Christ touch you, bringing wholeness, comfort, and strength. In Christ’s Name. Amen.”
When praying Healing Prayer for another and in her presence, choose a way of referring to God or the Divine Presence that is suitable to the person. This is an act of love, this giving up of your or your group preferred ways of referring to the Mystery, to serve another person. With such compassionate awareness, we can pray for each other across the boundaries of our temporal religions, humbly knowing that there are many ways to refer to the One.
The Method
1. Position yourself comfortably, close the eyes, and breathe through the nostrils, in and out from the area just above the abdomen.
2. Offer an invocation for the Spirit to bless this time of Healing Prayer.
3. Imagine a beautiful place of quiet and solitude. This could be a place in nature or a sanctuary; this could be a place you have been or one that you create in your imagination. Become settled there; notice the surroundings. Imagine that Christ or another image of the Divine Presence appears; likewise, you can image a saint from your faith tradition, as representing the Divine Presence. A radiant, glorious Light surrounds this Presence. The Presence looks at you, and you look in return. As you continue to look in the eyes of each other, you feel drawn to the Presence, pulled by a deep, loving compassion that arises from the Presence. You walk toward the Presence, until you stand right before this wonderful Love. You sense the Presence knows that there is someone whom you need to pray for.
4. Next, beside you appears the person whom you offer to the Divine Presence for healing. You do not say a word, for your presenting this person is your prayer. The Presence touches the person, and healing Light envelopes and fills the body of the person.
5. After a time, the Presence removes Her hands, and you notice the person disappear, though still enveloped by and filled with the Light.
6. Continue the exercise, presenting as many persons as you need to for a being touched with Love.
7. Before leaving this beautiful place, offer your thanksgiving to the Presence for touching those who appeared for healing.
8. Open your eyes, say the Lord’s Prayer or another short prayer, or do a slow, resonating chant, then sit quietly for a couple of minutes.
Spiritual Exercise
1. Do Healing Prayer for at least one person, today.
2. Do Healing Prayer for yourself, today.
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