Healing prayer is an intimate and vulnerable form of communication with God. We touch our heartfelt desire for our own well-being or that of another, and we come face to face with our fear of suffering and pain.

Healing prayer raises perplexing questions. We know, sometimes all too painfully, that not everyone we pray for is healed. Does God hear our prayers, and if so, why are some made well and others not? We pray, an illness progresses, and we confront the reality that sickness, pain, suffering, and death are woven into the fabric of life. And yet in spite of all the questions we continue to offer healing prayers. True?

In my first ministry, a member of the high school youth group struggled with a crippling case of cerebral palsy. At college, someone took him to a faith healing service. The healer prayed over him, nothing changed, but the healer told him he had try harder before God would hear his prayers.

Hooked on the possibility of a cure, he went to every faith healer that came to town. One day he called me, hopelessly depressed. One of them told him that he had too little faith to be healed. Someone else told him that until "he got right with God" he would not be healed. Burden laid upon burden, and false hope heaped upon false hope created a deep crisis of faith. Jesus confronted these lines of argument with the blind man in the morning lesson: people demanded to know, "who sinned, this man or his parents?" Jesus was not interested in blame, he was interested in the man’s life, nothing less, and the same is expected of us.

Given my pastoral experience and engagement with The Holocaust, I still don’t know why some prayers appear to work and others do not. I do not understand why people heap up judgments in the face of their own lack of answers. Instead of answers I hold the questions tenderly in the absence of true understanding. I choose to simply be a praying presence, as we each called to be – not theologians or philosophers but pure presence: uncomplicated, unburdened, selfless, and often a silent, supportive presence.

When we read the many biblical accounts of prayer and healing it becomes clear that the Divine intention of healing involves every facet of the human person: body, soul, mind, emotion, and spirit. The domain of God is the whole person. Jesus seemed to understand so clearly that when an illness struck an organ of the body the whole human system became involved.

So how do we offer healing prayers? There are at least seven helpful elements in healing prayers.

First, healing prayer focuses on the whole person, not solely on the illness or brokenness.

Second, healing prayer is an alignment of our intention with the intention of God. We pray confidently because God’s intention is nothing less than wholeness, healing, and peace.

Third, healing prayer is an act of solidarity. When we pray for someone we stand beside them and they are not alone, isolated, or ignored.

Fourth, healing prayer is an act of compassion. The recipient of prayers knows or senses that they matter to us and that we care deeply for them and about their well-being.

Fifth, healing prayer is empathic. We put ourselves in the place of the other and, sensing the whole person, broaden the focus our prayers and awareness.

Sixth, healing prayer directs a flow of spiritual energy between God, the one praying, and the one for whom the prayer is offered.

Finally, healing prayer deepens our faith as we do what Jesus asked, namely that we pray, touch, hold, love, and become apart of God’s healing presence.

Prayer is the attitude of your life and the direction of our spiritual being. In the purest sense, every aspect of our lives is prayer, healing prayer: from the Trappist monk, Thomas Merton who said, "I pray by breathing", to a dictum of the Benedictine Order, "To pray is to work, to work is to pray."

Larry Dossey, a physician and pioneer in the study of healing and prayer, tells of a surgeon who chaired the department at a large hospital, and who said to Dossey, "For much of my life I thought I did not believe in prayer. I felt I had left it behind when I went to college and medical school, but I realize I was wrong. I have been praying for my patients all along, every time I perform surgery." The surgeon described how his pre-surgery prayers involved feelings of compassion and empathy for his patients that created a sense of unity between the patient and the operating room team.

The surgeon concluded, "During surgery I feel totally immersed in what is happening. The more difficult the surgery, the more intense the feeling. Sometimes I feel as if the scalpel, the patient, and I are completely connected as a whole. This is often associated with a sense of reverence. I can’t describe this – it’s beyond words. For me, this entire experience is prayer – not something I do or say, but something I feel."

Our lives are prayers, whether we are parents or physicians, preachers or plumbers. Prayer is the attitude of our being, whether we are playing with our children, singing in the choir, driving the carpool, working on a contract, arguing a point of law, maneuvering our cars, visiting a friend, helping a stranger, listening to someone, or looking at something beautiful or majestic and saying Thank you. Your challenge and opportunity is to experience your life, moment by moment, as intentional prayer, as healing prayer.

I recently started a second round of physical therapy for my knee. The therapist surprised me with a heartful prayer for my injured knee, the work she’d do, and the restoration of strength, health, and a return to activities. My mind and body were weary of the stress and inactivity, the months of uncertainty. In two minutes of prayer, I felt my whole body and soul let go of the burdens I carried into the treatment room. My spirits did a mid-course correction, and I sensed that my knee would heal well.

So, we come to healing prayers with our questions and a bit of healthy skepticism. Still, we pray because we sense or we know first hand the powerful presence that is created by healing prayer. We still pray for healing in spite of our rational and scientific minds. Let this be our prayer as we sense our whole lives becoming a prayer: Lord, through our prayers and by our presence let your healing love flow into us and through us to others. In Christ’s name. Amen!

Biblical Texts: John 9:1-41 and Psalm 34:1-14

To sense our lives as prayer, as healing prayer, we intentionally ask God to use us in this way. Begin by first reflecting on and second offering this prayer: "Lord, through my prayers and by my presence let Your healing love flow into me, and then through me to others. For Jesus’ sake, amen.

Elements of healing prayer:

First, healing prayer I focus on the whole person, not solely on the illness or brokenness.

Second, healing prayer is an alignment of my intention with the intention of God. I pray confidently because God’s intention is nothing less than wholeness, healing, and peace.

Third, healing prayer is an act of solidarity. When I pray for someone I stand beside them and they are not alone, isolated, or ignored.

Fourth, healing prayer is an act of compassion. The recipient of my prayers knows or Senses that they matter to me and that I care deeply for them and about their well-being.

Fifth, healing prayer is empathic. I put myself in the place of the other and, sensing the whole person, broadening the focus my prayers and awareness.

Sixth, healing prayer directs a flow of spiritual energy between God, the one for whom I prayer, and me.

Finally, healing prayer deepens my faith as I do what Jesus asked, namely that I pray,touch, hold, love, and become apart of God’s healing presence.

Mindful of these elements, spend time each day holding one or more of these people in healing prayers (the condition is listed so that it may be a part of your total prayer).

• 16 week old Matthew having his second intestinal surgery on Thursday

• Ted’s brother John starting bone marrow transplant Monday

• Paul whose heart is having problems

• Vicki’s 5 year old grandson with a brain tumor

• Clayton with multiple serious health concerns

• Ginny’s brother-in-love Greg, chemo for end stage cancer

• Bertha facing orthopedic surgery

• Jeanne, undergoing treatments and blood transfusions

• You insert the name of a person for whom you hold healing concerns ____________

• Healing prayer for yourself, for a place of pain, separation, brokenness ___________

• Your healing prayer for the world or some part of the world __________
 
 

Questions for Reflection and Journalizing

* What does it mean to me that my life is a prayer, a healing prayer?

* How have I experienced myself as a healing presence?

* How do I think about the fact that I pray for the healing of others and myself, and yet the prayers are not always answered?

* What is it in my faith and spiritual being that supports my continuing prayers, my healing prayers?

*As I have held people on this prayer list what have I sensed about them and my relationship to them?

* What has happened within me and my spiritual practices, as I have been intentionally prayerful this week?

* Reflect on the ease and difficulties you have had holding the whole person (body, mind, soul, emotions, and spirit).
 
 
 

Thoughts for Further Reflection

"Thou wouldst not seek God if thou hadst not already found God." Blaise Pascal

"…we do pray for mercy, and that same prayer doth teach us all to render the deeds of mercy." Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice.

"I am never alone. My Christ is always present, always praying in me and I pray in him." The Christian mystic, Elizabeth of the Trinity

"Prayer always creates a new situation." G. S. Stewart

"Prayer’s greatest healing is therefore not healing, but the courageous and creative acceptance of the terms of mortal life. True prayer does not evade pain, but gains from it insight, patience, courage, and sympathy; and, at long last, makes it an oblation to God. True prayer does not sidestep death, but greets it. This is healing beyond healing." George Buttrick