Monday, December 31, 2012
Faith-Based Medicine for Fractured Nations
Monday, December 31, 2012
Where conflict has torn a country
apart, religion can play an important role in bringing it back together.
Daniel Philpott
Prior to one hearing of South
Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, commission officials confronted
Archbishop Desmond Tutu. His conduct of hearings, they claimed, had been too
religious. The commission was supposed to be a judicial body. It had been
enacted by the new South African constitution, enabled by parliamentary
legislation that carefully set forth its legal basis, and carried critical
legal consequences, especially for amnesty applicants. Should not Tutu separate
his role as head of this legal body from his role as a Christian pastor?
Continue reading Faith-Based Medicine for Fractured Nations...
Monday, December 24, 2012
THE INCARNATION RESTORES
An Explosion in Reverse
– December 24, 2012
“Ever since the coming of John the Baptist the kingdom of Heaven has been subjected to violence and violent men are seizing it.”
Remember that one scene in that one movie (it doesn’t matter which) where the building explodes? Fire flashes and plumes of smoke mushroom up and out. Everyone is leaping away and running for their lives. If we were to rewind, to watch the whole scene in reverse, to see the huge gases and fireworks shrink into a tiny stick of dynamite, we might get a tiny picture of what the Incarnation looked like.
Physicists (or, at least the mystics) are still scratching their heads. The Creator became created, and all of creation—even the stars—were involved. The Incarnation is not an abstract ideal. It does not swirl in endless, near-static motion somewhere in outer space. Like an explosion in reverse, the embodiment of God the Son in human flesh was God’s decisive single action in history. It happened only once. It will never be undone. And it has changed everything.
Explosions are loud and showy. But everything about the Incarnation was quiet and lowly. O little town of Bethlehem. By the looks of it no one would have thought this West Bank hamlet would be the birthplace of the promised Messiah. And the baby? Like a stick of dynamite on its own, baby Jesus seemed innocuous enough. Wrapped in swaddling clothes in the backrooms with the donkeys, no one would have suspected this nursing infant to be the divine, fiery Second Person of the Holy Trinity encapsulated, made man. Yet he was. And despite its backwater appearance, Bethlehem was the native city of King David; a city situated just five miles south of Jerusalem and the Temple, it was the obvious birthplace for the promised God-King.
Explosions shatter and destroy. They push everything and everyone away. But the Incarnation restores. It is the beginning of Jesus’ project to draw everything and everyone in, to heal. Christ’s plan is to bring the whole universe, all that is in heaven and on earth, into a unity with himself (Ephesians 1:10). As if by tractor beam, we are all being wooed, drawn into the deepest healing and health imaginable. Like an explosion in reverse, Jesus, the Son of God made Man, lovingly works to piece together what sin has fragmented, to make us whole and holy in him. The Creator is making a new creation, and he’s the first to try it out, the first to really live it, “the firstborn from the dead” (Colossians 1:18). May we now only follow.
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Hand Sanitizer at Communion Time
ROME, DEC. 18, 2012 (Zenit.org).-
Answered by Legionary of Christ Father Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at
the Regina Apostolorum university.
Q: After the swine flu epidemic last year, it became the practice
in many of our diocesan parishes to use hand sanitizer before the extraordinary
ministers of Holy Communion distribute Communion. In one parish the presiding
priest is even given a squirt of the sanitizer prior to his distribution of
Communion as well. Am I being overly concerned or is this a strange practice?
It is very distracting. -- C.M., Springfield, Massachusetts
A: I do not think there is necessarily a right or wrong answer to
such a question. Health situations and concrete possible dangers change from
year to year, and the pastoral response must change according to the
situations.
I would agree that a severe situation in one year should not be an
avenue for the introduction of emergency practices on a permanent basis, as
this is likely to lead to distractions for the faithful.
In periods of severe danger of contagion a bishop could even go so
far as to exempt his flock from the Sunday obligation and even order the
cancellation of public Masses. In recent years, and for different classes of
infection, such situations have arisen in Ireland and Mexico.
In less severe situations lesser precautions may be taken, such as
discouraging handshakes during the sign of peace, or a prudent and discreet use
of disinfectant such as that described by our reader.
If the use of a hand sanitizer is deemed necessary, then it would
be better for the extraordinary ministers to use it in the sacristy before
beginning their services.
In the case of the priest, unless he has some cold symptoms
himself, it is probably enough for him to use the sanitizer immediately before
beginning Mass. It is unlikely for him to become contagious during the
celebration itself, and this gesture is likely to make people more, rather than
less, wary at the moment of receiving Communion.
For example, in my own experience, many long-term care centers for
the elderly require visitors to sanitize only on entering the premises even
though they might be spending some time in contact with the residents.
In spite of this, however, such means could be used immediately
before communion if the situation warranted it. If the diocese has not issued
particular norms, then the parish priest could ask for medical opinion with
respect to taking reasonable precautions.
The faithful should also be aware that suffering from severe cold
or flu is a sufficient justification for not attending Mass.
In more acute cases refraining from attending a crowded Mass could
even be considered an obligation of charity, by not placing others at risk.
Finally, we must remember that, while prudence is necessary, most
people who catch colds and flu don't do so at Mass but rather at home, at work
and at school where they spend most of their time and in close contact with others.
Readers may send questions to liturgy@zenit.org.
Please put the word "Liturgy" in the subject field. The text should
include your initials, your city and your state, province or country. Father
McNamara can only answer a small selection of the great number of questions
that arrive.
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Use of Orthodox Holy Oils
Use of Orthodox Holy
Oils
And More on Communion for Patients
ROME, NOV. 20, 2012 (Zenit.org).- Answered
by Legionary of Christ Father Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at the
Regina Apostolorum university.
A: There are several points to address. As the priest mentioned,
the best solution would be to keep the holy oils available in the chaplain's
office. If a metal container is an insurmountable problem, then perhaps a
container made of glass, ceramic or some other suitable material would be permitted.
It might be possible to have the metal container cleared on a
once-off basis and bring in fresh oil each year in another vessel to replenish
it.
If this is not feasible, then it is possible to use the holy oils
stored by the Orthodox priest.
The principle involved is the mutual recognition of sacraments.
The Catholic Church recognizes the validity of all sacraments performed by the
Orthodox Churches. Thus it recognizes as valid sacramental matter the oil of
the sick duly blessed by an Orthodox bishop.
This is also confirmed by the Ecumenical Directory which allows
Catholics in an emergency to validly and licitly receive the sacraments of
penance, anointing of the sick, and Communion from an Orthodox priest.
Thus if a Catholic prisoner needed these sacraments in an
emergency, and the Catholic chaplain were not available, the Orthodox chaplain
could attend him.
In principle the reverse would also be true for an Orthodox
prisoner and the Catholic chaplain. However, in this case the Catholic chaplain
should verify the practice ahead of time with the Orthodox chaplain, since the
laws regarding the sharing of sacraments may vary among different Churches.
* * *
Follow-up: Communion Through a Feeding Tube
Pursuant to our comments regarding the possibility of receiving
Communion through a feeding tube (see Nov. 6) a reader asked
about a case where a hospital patient could not ingest the host: "Could an
extraordinary minister of holy Communion bless them with the holy Eucharist
instead, or is that seen as Benediction and only to be done by a priest?"
The rites for the pastoral care of the sick only foresee the
possibility of a priest or deacon blessing a sick person with the Blessed
Sacrament.
In the rite for visits to the sick in ordinary circumstances the
rubrics say:
"No. 91 [After distributing Communion] The priest or deacon
blesses the sick person and the others present…. If, however, any of the blessed
sacrament remains, he may bless the sick person by making a sign of the cross
with the blessed sacrament, in silence."
In referring to hospital visits where Communion is brought to many
rooms, a briefer rite is observed in which the blessing is omitted (Nos.
92-96).
The above cases foresee the blessing in addition to, but not as a
substitute to, holy Communion. If, however, a patient is physically unable to
receive the Eucharist, I believe it is compatible with the mind of the
legislator for a priest or deacon to offer some spiritual comfort by blessing
the person with the pyx.
An extraordinary minister of holy Communion would not have that
possibility since Eucharistic blessings are reserved to the ordained. He or she
could still visit the sick person with the Blessed Sacrament, place it on the
prepared table as if coming to give Communion, and accompany the patient for a
period of prayer, adoration and spiritual communion before moving on to the
next room.
This procedure is not specifically foreseen in the rites, but I
believe it falls within the bounds of the relevant liturgical law.
* * *
Readers may send questions to liturgy@zenit.org. Please put the word
"Liturgy" in the subject field. The text should include your
initials, your city and your state, province or country. Father McNamara can
only answer a small selection of the great number of questions that arrive.
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
The Yes and No of Healing
The Yes and No of Healing
What are we to make of people who experience inner healing and then revert to their old ways?
A few years ago, as I scanned the congregation before the service, I
again saw David and his wife, sitting in the back. He now attends
regularly, but that had not always been the case. He had avoided church
for years—until his wife became seriously ill and was suddenly healed
when a group of us prayed with her. Though he had witnessed that
miracle, David (no real names are used) avoided asking for prayer for
himself, though at times he liked me to pray for him and his wife as
they received Holy Communion together. This Sunday he asked for prayer
as he came forward for Communion, explaining, "My father died."
At the end of the service, I saw him sitting alone, hunched over in the
back of the church. I sat down next to him. David talked about how his
father had not been an affectionate man; he rarely let David know that
he loved him. The wounds of rejection and the need for fatherly
affirmation were deep. As we prayed about that deep hurt, the love of
the Father came over him. In the middle of our conversation, tears began
welling up in his eyes as he heard deep within himself the Father's
affirmation: "You are my child."
Through the tears he said, "I have never experienced anything like this
before." At that moment, the lie that he had believed, "I am not
loveable," was broken by the truth of God penetrating his heart. That
inner healing opened him up to share with me that he and his wife were
struggling in their marriage. Over the ensuing weeks, he came to me
regularly for healing prayer, became more open with his wife, and their
relationship began to improve.
Once the marital crisis passed, David stopped coming for healing prayer
because he thought everything was fine. Then he had an affair. He came
rushing back for healing prayer. Again God provided healing. He broke
off the adulterous affair, and after a few marital counseling sessions
that included inner healing prayer, the marriage was on the mend.
One day he answered a phone call from his former mistress, and soon he
was right back in the affair. This cycle repeated several times until
his wife had the papers drawn up for divorce. His chances were all used
up as far as she was concerned.
Today, David still attends church, sitting by himself in a pew in the
back of the church, always with his head hanging down. I feel both
frustration with him and compassion for him.
Healing is at the very heart of God. "I am the lord, who heals you"
(Ex. 15:26). The healing theme runs throughout the metanarrative of the
Bible: Creation to Fall to redemption to consummation. Every stage
involves healing, restoration, reconciliation, and transformation of
God's people in spirit, soul (mind, will, emotion), and body through
Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Yet I have found in my ministry of healing that David's experience is
not isolated. It raises important questions about how that healing
manifests itself between redemption and consummation. Was David's
original healing genuine? Was he perhaps "unhealed"?
How do we understand this, especially those of us who believe in and practice healing?
The Powerful No
Leanne Payne is well known in many Christian circles for her ministry of inner soul healing. In her book The Healing Presence: Curing the Soul Through Union with Christ,
she says that healing is blocked by, among other things, lack of
self-acceptance for who we really are. That is, we are created in the
image of God but find it hard to believe. Where does this lack of
self-acceptance come from?
The great German theologian Karl Barth said, "The unredeemed mind of
man, split off from the mind of the Creator, denies its Origin, denies
itself." How does it happen? Barth sees this struggle of self as a
battle within us between the "Yes" and the "No." We belong to the Yes of
God and not to the No of sin and our fallen nature. Yet the No often
has greater power to convince than the Yes.
This speaks succinctly about the process of inner healing. The
knowledge of who we are in God is the starting point for healing, a
point at which we begin and yet do not begin. This is expressed by the
father in the story of the boy afflicted by a mute spirit, who cried,
"Lord, I believe; help my unbelief" (Mark 9:24, NKJV). As Barth put it,
"We are dust and ashes with our 'Yes' and 'No.'"
Paul was healed in one significant sense. The healing was not that of
an emotional or physical ailment, but through his emotional or physical
ailment, God put an end to Paul's power.
Our identification is either in God or it is in the sin from which we
have been delivered. Once we have been delivered from sin, sin loses the
power to name us. However, theologian Miroslav Volf writes in his book The End of Memory: Remembering Rightly in a Violent World,
"The greater the wrong suffered, the more it gets ingrained into the
identity of the person who endured it… . When wrongdoing defines us, we
take on 'distorted identities, frozen in time and closed to growth.' …
In less severe cases, the wrongdoing may not define us fully; yet it
lodges in our core self and casts a dark shadow on everything we think
and do."
During a healing session with Marjorie, she told me about her ongoing
sense of rejection. "My first inner healing experience," she told me,
"involved a memory of being locked out of my house when I was around 5
years old." That healing and a subsequent one revealed her father had
been distressed when her mother discovered she was pregnant with
Marjorie. The fact that the marriage was in trouble only compounded the
problem. Marjorie then explained that another healing experience
revealed her own rejection and condemnation of herself. Through inner
healing over many years, she experienced the forgiveness of others and
of herself.
But now she explained to me, "I am experiencing the feeling of
rejection again, but this time with my spouse's family." There was the
strain of the declining health of her husband's parents and unresolved
issues in relationships, which flared up in angry outbursts about
long-held resentments. She felt that her husband's family hated her, and
that the "whole cycle of rejection is in full swing." The powerful No
was indeed casting a dark shadow over her.
The More Powerful Yes
On the other hand, as Barth notes, while "there is never so decisive a
Yes that it does not harbor the possibility of the No," it is also true
that "there is never so decisive a No that it is not liable to be
toppled over into the Yes." I've seen this reality in my healing work as
well.
After being rejected by her parents, Susan lived with her grandparents
most of her young life. When her grandfather died, she was sent to live
with an elderly woman for two years. She told me that all her life she
"felt not wanted and abandoned." This was her identity. During inner
healing sessions, her identity as a child of God was slowly restored.
Gradually, she came to forgive her parents. I could see progress in her
healing when she allowed others to come close and love her.
Then, a few months ago, she was deeply hurt by a close friend. God had
used this friend to help facilitate her healing from rejection and
abandonment, especially in terms of her father. "I felt that he [the
friend] completely misunderstood me," she said. "It was a sensitive and
very vulnerable moment for me, and his response was not so sensitive. I
closed off and cut him out of my heart. Even when he phoned to
straighten things out between us, I just went through the motions of
talking surface level, but could not open my heart again to him. I
decided that an empty, fringe relationship with him—like with all
others—is safer. Nobody has to know me or see my heart or know when I am
hurt, especially not the people who have the potential to be close to
me."
This is the great Yes that can never ultimately be drowned out by the No of our sin and infirmities.
Susan was catapulted back into the childhood trauma of rejection. She
literally felt her soul sliding back into that old familiar state of a
frozen and closed heart. Suddenly she became aware that "I was giving
isolation a foothold again and really asked God to help. I had to take
the hard step to take the initiative to phone my friend and to indicate
that the relationship was important to me. It was horrible and awkward
to be that vulnerable. But all along, my heart knew I was fighting for
an imperfect but very precious relationship that God put in place. The
relationship is restored now and maybe it will be stronger than before
because I am one step stronger and more mature."
Here we see an example of a powerful No that has been "toppled over
into the Yes." Healing is a process and the past wrongdoing in Susan's
life is being dislodged from her core self as her identification in God
is being revealed.
Weakness: It Is Finished
The issue of our core identification in God is raised even more sharply
by the examples of people who aren't healed in the way they wanted to
be healed. Does that indicate that healing has not occurred? Does this
suggest that God has not blessed that hurting person with his great Yes?
Look at Paul's "thorn in the flesh." Three times he asked God to remove
it. We have no idea what this affliction was, but we do know it was
grievous to Paul and caused him discomfort. Still, he continued with
even more zeal to serve God, teaching and preaching the kingdom of God
in power and authority, including healing the sick and driving out
demons. God had a purpose in refusing Paul's request to be healed of
this thorn:
Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a
thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I
pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My
grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."
Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that
Christ's power may rest on me. (2 Cor. 12:7-9)
Marva Dawn, in her book Powers, Weakness, and the Tabernacle of God, reflects on this passage, and suggests an alternate translation for Paul's statement "for my power is made perfect [Greek teleo] in weakness." She notes that in nearly every other instance in the New Testament, the verb teleo
is translated with some form of the English "to finish." So she
translates this phrase with God saying to Paul, "for [your] power is
brought to its end in weakness." Paul was healed in one significant
sense. The healing was not that of an emotional or physical ailment, but
through his emotional or physical ailment, God put an end to Paul's
power. As Dawn points out at length in her book, our power—our sense of
self-sufficiency—must be relinquished if we are to enjoy God
"tabernacling" with us, God's presence within us.
Specifically this means that what we do and what we suffer does not
define us at the deepest level. We are not defined by our infirmities or
the fact that we may have been healed from one or more of them. We are
fundamentally defined by the flame of God's presence within, which gives
us a new identity that burns in us inextinguishably. Our bodies and
souls are the temples of the Lord, and as Volf succinctly says, "Though …
our bodies and souls may become ravaged, yet we continue to be God's
temple—at times a temple in ruins, but sacred space nonetheless."
This is the great Yes that can never ultimately be drowned out by the
No of our sin and infirmities. In fact, the No of our infirmities
enables us to live into this Yes, and they become a witness of the
finished Yes of Christ on the cross and in our lives.
Power/self-sufficiency is indeed put to an end in weakness and death.
Thus we are neither discouraged nor surprised by our fluctuating
experience of healing, for healing does indeed wax and wane. There will
be moments when we know unmistakably the great Yes. But any "unhealing"
we might experience, while giving testimony to the No of sin, does not
define who we are, nor does it change the fundamental Yes that has been
pronounced on us by God.
And because this is true, we see that the Yes of God's kingdom has the
power to break into the most fearsome places, where the No seems to have
all but won.
At the close of a weeklong healing conference in Rwanda, marked by a
deep movement of God's love, one woman walked forward to the front of
the room to speak. In a soft-spoken voice, Agnes began: "The men who
killed my firstborn are here today." The silence was deafening. All
waited. She moved from the microphone and brought the three men forward
by the hand. All eyes were fixed on her. The men stood next to her,
heads bowed. She looked intently at them as she continued: "Today I
forgive you. You are my brothers."
In the healing journey, we can embrace both our corruption and grace,
both our weakness and God's strength, knowing the very presence and
character of God has fundamentally healed us with this great Yes.
Sharon L. Lewis, an Episcopal priest in the diocese of Southwest
Florida, is founder and executive director of Amazing Love Healing
Ministry (www.amazinglovehealing.com) in Nokomis, Florida.
Saturday, September 29, 2012
HEALING WEEKEND IN NEWBURY PARK
October 5: His Presence and Power
Community Worship
Praise, worship, and healing prayer.
Prayer teams from Conejo Valley and other Ventura County Healing Rooms will be
available. Open to all!
October 6: Healing
Prayer Seminar
Ken Fish will teach on God's Will
to Heal and Mike Flynn will teach on Using Your Authority. Register by October 3 if you want lunch with us.
Two Options to Register
for October 6 Healing Prayer Seminar:
Online: Visit our website, then click on the
Seminar Registration menu. $20 suggested donation includes lunch. Follow
the directions on the Registration Page to indicate your lunch preference.
Postal Mail: Make your donation check payable to Conejo Valley Healing
Rooms, write your phone number and the number of attendees in the memo line,
and mail it to:
Conejo
Valley Healing Rooms
1602 Newbury Road, #19207
Newbury
Park CA 91320
Directions
to Lighthouse Church
Click here for an
online map to Lighthouse
Church.
Questions? Need help? Call 805.559.1886
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