Position Paper All rights reserved.  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the Author.  Copyright © Rev.Fr. Dmitri Ross, 1996

One of the Blessings often experienced by God’s Faithful is that of Miraculous HEALING of afflictions and infirmities. (Ex.15:26; Ps.103:3) Jesus healed those who came to him in faith (Matt.14:14; Matt.9:29) and He is still healing people today through His chosen Servants.

James 5:14-15 instructs Christians to call upon the Elders (Bishops)

of the Church for prayer and anointing when they are sick.  “The prayer of FAITH will save the sick” according to Gods purpose and way.

 

Because it was impossible for the Blessed Apostle St.Paul, (or any other Apostle for that fact) to personally anoint all who requested it, he set us an example of anointing cloths and sending them to those who had requested prayer for HEALING (Acts 19:12).  The Orthodox Church should follow this example today.  It is also impossible for a

Priest to visit all the Sick especially if they are so diverse in location. If a person wants to turn to God for HEALING, then he, or she should request an anointed cloth (from the HOLY CHRISM), fulfilling the command in James 5:14.  There is no magical power in these cloths.  They do not heal. They are mainly a Symbol of our FAITH and OBEDIENCE. God knows the NEED and FAITH of the person who is sick, and in His love and Mercy, He

 

will act accordingly.

 

How to use such a Cloth. Just place it upon the forehead of the one who is sick, as the Priest would do if he were present to lay his hands on the Sick person and then anoint them. After you have applied the

cloth, please destroy it. That is all - just leave the outcome in God’s

hands.  It is God Himself who will do the HEALING, not the Priest or the Cloth.  Healing expresses a deeply personal relationship between an individual and His God. It does help if the person has FAITH that God will HEAL them, if you do not have this FAITH nothing will happen no matter how many anointings you have.  We have an example of this in the HOLY FATHERS, with a slight variation.  I will refer to this now. A Holy Father named John of Lycus  , did not himself work his cures openly, but he used to consecrate the oil and give it to those who were afflicted, and they were healed.

 

There is a case about the wife of a certain nobleman who had the light of her eyes taken away through the Cataract which obstructed the light thereof, and she begged and entreated her husband to take her to him (John of Lycus), and when he said unto her, “The Blessed man hath

 

never met a woman,” she besought him to have a message sent to the Holy Man asking him offer up a Prayer on her behalf; and this the Blessed Man did, and he also sent her some oil over which he had said a Blessing and made the Sign of the Cross, and when she had smeared her eyes therewith three times, after three days she was able to see.  So great was her FAITH.  Then she praised God the Lord of all, for this deliverence and openly gave thanks to Him always.  There were other such miracles wrought in the Name of God using the HOLY OIL (which we today call CHRISM).

 

We of the Orthodox Church have such a lovely Service called HOLY UNCTION   in some Western disciplines they call it The Visitation of the Sick.  Let us take time to look at this Act of LOVE.  EXTREME UNCTION is usually associated with the Dying. Although I believe that the Roman Church no longer uses the Term Extreme Unction or the Last Rites.

Anointing with the Holy Oil is a Sacrament in which, through the anointing of the body, the Grace of God is invoked upon the sick person; because that Grace heals all ills, both those of the Soul, and those of the Body.  It is performed in the main over sick persons, but in some instances

 

Healthy people can receive anointing by proxy on behalf of other people who are sick or who have some other problem.

It is the practise in some Russian Churches that on Holy Thursday, the Bishop anoints all persons who desire it, after the Divine Liturgy because, on the evening of Great and Holy Thursday Christ instituted a New Covenant with His Body and Blood.  Therefore it is not unfitting that a well person should also partake of this Sacrament, since he knows not the day and hour of his or her death.  The warrant for this is the saying of St.James, taken in its broadest sense to include those who suffer from Spiritual Ills - grief, despondnecy, and the like - as well as those from the body.

 

The sick person who receives the Sacrament of Holy Unction must be of the Orthodox Faith, and must prepare themselves by repentance and confession; and before or after this Sacrament they receive the Sacrament of the Holy Communion.  HOLY UNCTION, being in the nature of a healing remedy, may be repeated; and even the young need not fear to receive it, under the erroneous impression that, having received it, they cannot, henceforth, eat meat or marry.  It is performed in Church, in the presence of the Faithful, if the sick person is able to leave his/her

 

bed; or at home before an assembly of people.  Seven Priests are appointed to perform it, because there are seven Lessons from the Epistles, seven from the Gospels, and seven Prayers; the number seven being chosen as symbolical of the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit, and in conformity with the number seven connected with the Shunammite woman’s child and Prophet Elisha (2 Kings iv, 35); and of the reopening of the skies by the Prophet Elijah, after they had been shut up for three years and a half.(1 Kings xviii,43); of Naamans dipping himself in the waters of Jordon, after which he was cleansed.  But in case of need Holy Church permits one Priest to perform the Office, if he does so in the name of the whole assembly.  A shorter form of the Office is appointed for use

over those in danger of Immediate death.  Another name for the Sacrament is, “Prayer Oil”. Oil is a visible token of the Grace of Healing (Markxvi,18).  The oil must be pure Olive Oil without any admixture.

The Great Demetrius (+ at Thessalonica, A.D. 306), whose bones still exude Chrism, and are famous throughout the East as Healing to the Sick.  St.Demetrius is also referred to as the Great Martyr and Mhyrr Gusher Demetrius.  We also have in Holy Church Weeping Icons and if the liquid is caught up in a swatch is said to have Healing

 

Powers.  Which is a manifestation that God in His Infinite Wisdom is still pouring out His Holy Spirit upon mankind.

 

St.Pantleimon, of Nicomedia, was a Christian Physician, who suffered martyrdom for the Faith A.D.296.  He performed many miraculous cures during his lifetime, and was beheaded, after many vain efforts to kill him by various torturing assaults, in which God protected him from harm.  “Unmercenaries” is the title applied to disinterested benefactors, who alleviated the pangs both of the soul and body; more especially to physicians of the Early Church.

 

In this act the Church imiitates the Prophet Elisha, who sent his staff to the Shunammite woman (2 Kings iv,29).  As the Gospels contain the accounts of many miracles wrought by JESUS CHRIST are laid upon the sufferer’s head, with the printed pages down, in the hope that he will receive physical and Spiritual Healing.

 

Sickness   exists in the world only because of sin.  There would be no sickness at, neither mental nor physical, if man had not sinned.

 

 

 

According to Christ sickness is bondage to the Devil.  (Matt 8:16,12:22; Luke 4:40-41, 13:10-17).  And Christ has come to “destroy...the devil.” (Hebrews 2:14).  With Jesus the forgiveness of of sins, the healing of the body, the destruction of the devil and the raising of the dead are all one and the same act of Salvation.

In that hour He cured many of diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and on many that were blind He bestowed sight. (Luke 7:21)

Doing these things Jesus showed that He is Christ the Messiah, the fulfillment of the prophets who brings the Kingdom of God to the world.  When one is delivered from sin and evil, one is also freed from sickness and death.  In the Kingdom of God there will be “no sickness or sorrow or sighing, but life everlasting.” (Requiem Kontakion of the Church).

 

We have also seen that those who suffer through sickness and disease

with every virtue of Christ will receive “Sufficient Grace” from God to be strong in the Lord in their bodily weakness, and so direct their sufferings “not unto death” but to the “Glory of God.” (2 Cor.12:7-10, John 11:4).  In a very real sense the most grievous suffering of all is not in the flesh but the spirit.  This is the suffering which torments the soul when, by the

 

Grace of God and in the Light of Christ, the spiritual person sees the utter futility, ugliness and pettiness of sin which is destroying men made in the Image of God.  According to one great Theologian of the Church this suffering was the most grievous of all for the Lord Jesus Himself.  (Metropolitan

Anthony  Khrapovitski’s book ‘The Dogma of Redemption’ 20th c.)

 

The Psalmist David had his thoughts on Healing, when he penned these words:-

‘The Lord healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds-

Bless the Lord, O my soul... who healeth all thy diseases, who redeemeth thy life from destruction. (Ps.147:3; 103:2-4) The Gospels

abound in stories of Healing.  Most of us have forgotten that the word Saviour actually means ‘Healer’, He who makes whole and sane what is broken and insane, in body and mind.  The woman who encountered Him was made whole just by touching the Hem of His Garment and who said ‘Who Touched Me’ even in so great a throng that must have been milling around Him, He could feel power being released from Him.  He charged His Apostles to go preach, also the Heal the Sick, raise the dead, cleanse the Lepers and Cast out

 

 

demons.  He gives them authority and power; for in Him the Kingdom of God has appeared, and its nature is salvation, healing of that which is ill, making whole what is broken.

 

Many people were worried about the New Testament Miracle Stories for decades, but today we know better, that the Miracles were signs

pointing towards the presence of Divine Power in the world today.

Have we experienced the phenomina of being made whole from ills that the destructive forces in this world have beset us with?  Has this happened under the power of the picture of Jesus as Saviour? This is the real problem, the true Christological problem (Theologically speaking), the question of life and death (humanly speaking), for every Christian and of Christendom today.

 

St.Maximos the Confessor   tells us that Divine Grace cannot actualise the illumination of Spiritual Knowledge, unless there is a natural faculty capable of receiving the illumination.  Not even the grace of the Holy Spirit can actualise wisdom in the Saints unless there is an intellect capable of receiving it. Also you cannot receive

the Gifts of Healing unless there is natural compassion in the recipient. He who seeks with

 

any passion will fail to find what he seeks. For Scripture says, ‘You ask, and do not receive, because you ask wrongly’ (Jas.4:3). If we dispassionately knock on the door of Spiritual knowledge, we will without hindrance attain the hidden grace of Mystical Theology (cf.Matt.7:7-8). Next we will look at what St.Theophan the Recluse has to say about the ‘The Cleansing Path of ever-increasing Sufferings.

 

We must continually accept trials and tribulations at God’s hand, and also the spirit of contrition which He imparts: for these and other such things are a most powerful instrument in our purification.  In their effect these experiences are as great a help as a Spiritual Director, and when a spiritual director is lacking they can and do replace him, provided the person in question has faith and humility.

St.Isaac the Syrian describes in detail the gradual process whereby the Lord leads a man who is being purified into the cleansing path of

ever-increasing sufferings, and how He arouses within him the spirit of contrition.

 

St.Abba Dorotheus tells us that: ‘Evil in itself is nothing, for it is not some kind of creature and has no substance.  But the soul, deviating from virtue, becomes passionate and gives birth to sin,

 

and thereupon suffers for it can find no natural rest in it.  We see the same thing in physical illness.  If a man leads a disorderly life and takes no care of his health, there results either an excess or deficiency of something in his body, which makes him ill.  But previously there was no illness, and it never existed of itself; and after the body is cured, it again has no existence at all.  In the same way evil is an illness of a soul that is deprived of the health belonging to it by nature----and that health is virtue.’

Since the Bible is the basis for faith, it is important to see the high respect the Author of the Book of Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) pays to the

medical profession at a time (2nd Cent.B.C.) when medicine was in its infancy and was little more than the art of he apothecary: (Sir.38: 1-15).  There we have it all: a belief in prayer for healing as well as a recognition that God cures likewise through the skill of a doctor and through medicine. Medicine and prayer are not opposed, but the doctor, the nurse and the person with gift of healing prayer all together form God’s healing team.

 

MIRACLES TODAY?

There is not, I believe, a single datum in the New Testament writings to warrant the dogma that miracles ceased or that various gifts were

 

withdrawn with the end of the Apostolic Age.  Such dispensationalism depends on extra-scriptural arguments and hermeneutics (the science of interpretation).  The gifts were given to the Church, not just to the Apostles.

Healings today, I think rarely involve the suspension of natural laws.  They are not miracles in that sense.  Yet they are truly a Ministry of the Holy Spirit of God in the Churches.  Where healings occur they do so at many levels and in many settings.

If healing is in the will of God in any of its many forms, so is victorious suffering.  As to Paul, so to vey many who know and trust His Lord, the revelation comes: ‘My Grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness’ (2Cor.12:9).  For some, sickness is in the will (purpose, decree, providence) of god for a while; but so is final healing and full redemption.  He who allows us to suffer, and who suffers with us in many circumstances, knows what ultimate plans he has for us. (Jer.29:10-11)

 

St.John Climacus   has some good advice for us. He tells us we need to be vigilant when the body is sick.  The demons seeing that we are laid low rejoice as that is when they make their fiercest attacks.

 

It was astounding to see how the flesh rages and burns with desire amidst violent agonies.  Then looking again I saw them being comforted by Divine Power and were eventually cleansed from all that was besetting them. He further tells us that when we see one of our fellow workers for Christ ill, that we are not to seek the reason for the illness, but with simple and genuine love seek to heal him as if he was part of our own body.  Sickness is given sometimes for the cleansing of sins, and sometimes to humble our mind.  St.John gives an excellent Alphabet for us to strive towards.

 

Obedience             Hardship                 Fasting

Humiliation          Sackcloth                           Contrition

Ashes                 Forgetfulness            Tears

Brotherly love      Confession                Meekness

Silence                Simple Faith             Humility

Freedom              Vigil                       Hateless hatred of peers

Courage              Detachment              Cold

Innocence              Toil                        Abasement

When you have time examine all the other

attributes of the Ladder of Divine Ascent.

 

 

I ask you now to ponder three questions:-

1. ‘Do I really believe that when Christ was on earth He really healed people?’

2. ‘Do I really believe that after they killed Him on the Cross that He really rose again?’

3. ‘Do I really believe that He is the same, yesterday, today and forever?’

Only you yourselves will know the answers to these questions. I feel certain that each of you will approach your answer in a different

manner.

 

In these days the Church is, happily, recovering her healing ministry, yet there are still good Christians who regard Divine Healing as something which is not really necessary to the everyday life of the Church.

 

You know I was appalled just recently when I learnt that there are some Clergy who loath visiting the Sick either at home or in hospital

and especially the ones who need our love and care the most, those who are in Mental Institutions. I was even more appalled that Orthodox Clergy would give the Mental Hospitals the by-pass.  I see a neglected Ministry here and intend use this as a form of outreach as these poor souls are ones who are in desparate need of

 

Spiritual Healing.

 

It did not matter whether or not He said to the man sick of the Palsy, ‘Son. thy sins be forgiven thee’ - a spiritual matter-, or ‘Take

up thy bed and walk’- a physical matter-.  He came to set the man free from all that harmed and hurt him.

 

When Our Lord spoke in the Synagogue once he chose a passage from Isaiah which was one of the Messianic Prophecies and read:”The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor: He hath sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of the sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”

Almost immediately people began to bring their sick ones to Him and He healed them all.

 

If this work of healing worries people now, it certainly worried them then!  Even Blessed John the Forerunner was taken aback. From his prison cell he sent two messengers to ask Jesus: “Art thou he that should come or look we for another?”

 

 

 

When as His ministry progessed, He selected from all His disciples, twelve who would continue His work, He sent them out on a Training Mission.  He did not tell them just to preach the gospel but rather to proclaim the Gospel by the preaching of the Kingdom and the Healing of the sick.  It was clear that He wanted them to continue His work and He would provide the power.

It was a two-fold Commission. The Preaching and the Healing belonged together.  They were inseparable.

 

Jesus delegated His authority to His Disciples.  He sent them forth two by two and ‘gave them power and authority over all devils and to cure diseases.  He sent them forth to preach the kingdom and to heal the sick.’  And then later, after His Ascension, ‘they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working through them and confirming the word.’

 

Certainly, in the early days of the Church, preaching the kingdom and healing the sick went unhesitatingly hand in hand.  This Divine Authority was the only kind of authority the Infant Church knew. Not for them were the Palaces and Cathedrals and all the outward parphernalia of what sometimes might appear as signs of worldly

authority.  These were the days before the

 

Church became Official.

Constantine’s conversion was yet to come.

 

There are three healing qualities.  The first step towards healing is acceptance.  We have to learn to accept ourselves, in God’s sight, just as we are. We have to accept ourselves and our condition completely, when all we can say is a sincere, ‘Just as I am ....’

 

Then we come to the second quality of expectant faith. It is clear from the Gospels that expectant faith is important if any healing is to be done. The earlier example of the woman in the crowd who

touched His hem is a case in point.  Another example of this is the Roman Centurion who came to Him to seek help for his servant. He

would not have the Master trouble himself to come to see his servant; but said to Him ‘Say the word only and he shall be healed’ and Our Lord said ‘According to your Faith be it done unto you.’

Where expectant faith is present the creative energies of God have free flow. There is a significant phrase in Hebrews Chapt.11 - “Faith

is the substance of things hoped for.” A spiritual triangle is created.

The Priest and the Sufferer form the base and the Holy Spirit is the Apex.  When the triangle is

 

complete the atmosphere becomes vibrant with expectant faith. Now we come to the third quality Surrender.

It is a surrender to whatever Christ will do. You just give yourself over into the Lord’s Hands. You just Let Go and Let God. It is a surrender in a good cause.

 

We need to believe in God’s healing power and pray for healing, while at the same time realizing that there is a mystery involved and that the person may not be healed.  We must be aware of reasons why people are not healed.  I have found eleven such reasons and these will be discussed now:-

1. Lack of Faith.

When the disciples could not cure the epileptic Jesus upbraided them for their lack of faith (Matt. 17:14-20) So it can be a Lack of Faith

on the part of the sufferer or the Healer.

 

2. Redemptive Suffering.

At times God uses sickness for a higher purpose.  There has been a long history of saints whom God called to suffer redemptively in union with

suffering of Jesus on the Cross.  If a person is called to suffer for the sake of the kingdom or to learn a lesson, then clearly they should not pray

 

for healing.

 

3. A False Value attached to Suffering.

Suffering is a mystery that all of us have to wrestle with in some form or another. Sickness in itself is an evil and is not ordinarily direct willed by God, but as a result of original sin it is permitted. But complete healing may not come and there will be some mysterious reason why this is so.  It is not for us to question why but to accept

that it is God’s Will.

 

4. Sin.

If there is sin connected with the physical ailment, especially resentment, no healing is likely to take place unless the sin is dealt with first.

 

5. Not Praying Specifically.

Especially in praying for Inner Healing, it seems important to get to the root cause of emotional suffering, the initial harmful memory. If

you do not pray for the Specific Item, usually nothing happens.  You have to be sure that you are on the right wave length with God. Then again a person may appear Healed and then it regresses because the specific root was not address and also a tendancy of lack of faith creeps in.

 

 

6. Faulty Diagnosis.

Just as in medicine doctots often mis-diagnose ailments and consequently fail to prescribe the right medicine and treatment, so also does a Minister of Healing, if he lacks discernment, is bound to fail from time to time. Examples of these are below:-

a. Praying for physical healing, when inner healing was the basic need.

b. Praying for deliverence from evil spirits, when inner healing was the real need.

c. Praying for inner healing when deliverance was the real need.

 

7. Refusal to see Medicine as a way God Heals.

I firmly believe that Physicians and remedies are alternative instruments tha God uses to bring about healing.  The Book of Sirach

explicity says that after we pray we should let the Doctor take over and ‘do not let leave you, for you need him.  Sometimes success is in their hands, since they in turn will beseech the Lord to grant them the Grace to relieve and to heal, that life may be saved.’ (Sir.38:12-14).

 

8. Not using the Natural Means of Preserving Health.

 

We should not neglect the ordinary means of keeping balance in our Lives.  If we negelct these we should not be surprised if we fall sick and prayer does not cure us. Do not overdo things as we are wont to do.  If we feel that we need a rest, take it. The physical batteries need recharging as well as the Spiritual Ones. ‘Put more balance in your life.’ In order to be healed you need to alter your lifestyle.

 

9. Now is not the Time.

For whatever reason there often seems to be a right time for Healing.  There seem to be four basic sequwnces in praying for Healing:

1. Some healings are instantaneous.

2. In some healings there is a delay.

3. Some healings occut in a process, gradually.

4. Others do not seem to occur, at least on the physical level, at all. If nothing comes of Prayer, perhaps now is not the time.

 

10. A Different Person is to be the Instrument of Healing.

Perhaps we are not the ones to be used as an Instrument. Either we do not relate to the person or we lack Faith to carry out the task.

It is another time to let go and Let God.  We should know if we have been called to do this Ministry for a particular person.

 

11. The Social Environment prevent Healing from Taking Place.

Wait upon God’s wisdom in all simplicity, like a child.  We face the mystery of God’s Providence. The Healing Ministry is perhaps the most dramatic, and one of the most beautiful demonstartions of God’s love for us. Healing is a mystery of God’s Love.  If we think that we have all the answers we are shut off from God’s Light. We must be careful of our Physical Surroundings before we embark on

a Ministry of Healing.  If it is not conducive, nothing will happen no matter how earnestly we pray. We ask ourselves this. Whom does He want to Heal?  When?  Through whom?  It is a case of waiting upon God.

 

This world is a vast lazar house, but Christ came to heal the sick, to proclaim deliverance to the captives of Satan.  He was in Himself health and strength.  He imparted His Life to the sick, the afflicted, those possessed of demons.  He turned away none who came to receive His healing power. He knew that those who petitioned Him for help had brought disease upon themselves, yet He did not turn them away.

And when virtue from Christ entered into these poor souls they were convicted of sin, and many were healed of their Spiritual Disease as well

 

as of their Physical Maladies.  The Gospel still possesses the same power, and why should we not witness the same results today?

 

In the Saviour’s manner of healing there were lessons for His disciples.  On one occassion He anointed the eyes of a blind man with clay and bade him, ‘Go, wash in the Pool of Siloam.... He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.’ John 9:7.  The cure could be wrought only by the power of the Great Healer, yet Christ made use of simple agencies of nature.

 

To many of the afflicted ones who received healing Christ said,”Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.” John 5:14.  Thus He taught that disease is the result of violating God’s Laws, both Natural and Spiritual.  The power of love was in all Christ’s healing, and only by partaking of that love, through faith, can we be instruments for His work.  There were places where the Saviour Himself could not do many mighty works because of their Unbelief.  So now Unbelief  separates the Church from her Divine Helper.  Her hold upon eternal realities is weak.  By her lack of faith, God is disappointed and robbed of His Glory.  In praying for the sick, it is essential to have faith; for it is in accordance with the Word of God.  ‘The effectual fervent

 

prayer of a righteous man availeth much.’ Jas.5:16. So we cannot discard praying for the sick, and we should feel very sad if we could not have the privilege of approaching God, to lay before Him all our weaknesses and our infirmities, to tell the compassionate Saviour all about these things, believing that He hears our petitions.

Sometimes answers to our prayers come immediately; sometimes we have to wait patiently and continue in earnest supplication.

 

In order for the church to be healthy, it must be composed of healthy Christians.  But in our Churches and institutions there are many sickly Christians. The harmonious action of the different parts of the body must be preserved. It is so of the Soul and the Heart is to be kept guarded.. ‘What profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?  Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?’ Mark 8:36-37.  By eating the Flesh and drinking the Blood of Christ we gain spiritual strength and are in constant communion with God.  When did you last Take Holy Communion? This is the Highest Form of  Spiritual Healing.

 

 

 

 

PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL HEALING:

There is a Gospel of Healing.  It is not new but it is as old as the ages themselves.  It is proven historically as one of the of the  Cornerstones in the foundation of the Early Church.

 

Spiritual healing emanates from one Divine Source. The individual healer is but a Channel of Divine Power.

 

Spitirual Healing today is the continuation of the Healing that was known thousands of years before Christ.  With the advent of Jesus of Nazareth  a new keynote was sounded.

 

The Master stressed Love and made Healing a primary factor in His Ministry.  The Disciples followed His Example and spread the Gospel

through Spiritual Healing. In that day healings were called Miracles.

 

After 300 AD for diverse reasons Spiritual Healing languished for 1500 years.  Today  Greek Orthodox healing centres, where the Church is the centre of health, in the Community are still located on the Islands of Mitylene where St.Paul once spent the night (Acts 20 v 14) and Tenos, south of the Dardenelles.

 

THE PLACE OF SPIRITUAL HEALING IN THE CHURCH:

Those who are in Truth His Disciples, receiving Grace from Him, do in His Name perform Miracles.  For some do certainly and truly drive out Devils, others still heal the sick by laying hands on them, and they are made whole. St.Irenaeus . C.180 AD

 

Justin Martyr (C.150-155AD) in his Second Apology - to the Senate VI., said, “For numberless demoniacs throughout the whole world, and in your City, many of our Christian Men exorcising them in the Name of Jesus.”

 

By the time of Origen, who was martyred in 253 AD says: “ There are still preserved among Christians traces of that Holy Spirit which appeared in the form of a Dove.”

Note the word “Traces”. “They expel evil spirits, and perform many cures and foresee certain events.” But there are signs that the fire is beginning to die.

 

The questions that finally decide the Place of Spiritual Healing in the Church are not whether God ever sends sickness or whether the innocent ever suffer.  These questions are:

 

1. Does God ever will that we shall merely accept sickness in resignation? Is it ever God’s will that regardless of conditions an individual is to remain sick?  Or is it God’s Will to work toward a victory over sickness?

 

2. Can Spiritual Therapy meet the conditions for the removal of sickness?

 

3. Is the healing of the body or mind apart from therestoration of a True Spiritual Relationship with God an adequate expression of the Love of Christ?

 

If healing is so firmly imbedded in the Gospel as the Bible indicates, it should play some part in the Ministry of every Clergyman.

 

The 17th.Canon of Hippolytus orders the following Prayer to be used at the Ordination of Bishops and Presbyters. ‘Grant him, O Lord, a mild spirit, and power to remit sins, and grant him to loose all bonds of the iniquity of demons, and to Heal all Diseases.’

 

The Apostolic Constitutions direct the Bishop to pray that all Candidates for the Priesthood may be “filled with Gifts of Healing.”

 

 

Go with God and walk in the Strait Path that He has set before us, is my Prayer for you all in Jesus’ Holy Name. AMEN!

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 

“ HEALING”         FRANCIS MACNUTT OP

 

“THE ORTHODOX FAITH VOL IV SPIRITUALITY” FR.THOMAS HOPKO

 

“PARADISE OF THE FATHERS” E.A. WALLIS BUDGE

 

“THE ART OF PRAYER” EDITED BY PALMER,WARE ETC.

 

“PRAYER OF THE HEART” EDITED BY KADLOUBOVSKY ,PALMER.

 

“TYPICON”

 

“REVELATIONS OF DIVINE LOVE” JULIAN OF NORWICH

 

“PATHS IN SPIRITUALITY” JOHN MACQUARRIE

 

“THE HOLY SPIRIT IN CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY” GEORGE HENDRY

 

“THE LADDER OF DIVINE ASCENT” ST.JOHN

 

CLIMACUS

 

“THE CHURCHES HANDBOOK FOR SPIRITUAL HEALING”

WALTER W. DWYER

 

“THE CASE FOR SPIRITUAL HEALING” DON H. GROSS

 

“THE HEART OF HEALING” FR. GEORGE BENNETT.