healing

Grave cloths that bind me

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
Resurrection of Lazarus by Henry Ossawa Tanner via Wikimedia Commons
 
Our Father in heaven, I thank you that you have led me into the light.
I thank you for sending the Savior to call me from death to life.
I confess that I was dead in sin before I heard his call,
    but when I heard him, like Lazarus, I arose.
But, O my Father, the old grave cloths bind me still.
Old habits that I cannot throw off,
    old customs that are so much part of my life
    that I am helpless to live the new life that Christ calls me to live.
Give me strength, O Father, to break the bonds;
    give me courage to live a new life in you;
    give me faith to believe that with your help I cannot fail.
And this I ask in the name of the Savior
    who has taught me to come to you.

prayer from Taiwan
_______________________

John 11:38-44 

Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. 
It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 
    “Take away the stone,” he said.
    “But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, 
    “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”  
Then Jesus said, 
    “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”

So they took away the stone. 
Then Jesus looked up and said, 
“Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, 
    but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, 
    that they may believe that you sent me.”

When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, 
    “Lazarus, come out!”  
The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, 
    and a cloth around his face.  
Jesus said to them, 
    “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

_______________________

Questions

What experiences from your past still bind you 
    and prevent you from following God as you know you should?

Wash me with your tears

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
Jesus Weeps by Linda Richardson
 
Lord, we show you our wounds so that you may heal us.
And even if we do not, you know,
    and you wait to hear our voice.
Do away our scars by tears,
    like the woman in the gospel who washed your feet with hers.
 
You know how to help the weak,
    when there is no one who can prepare the feast,
    or bring the ointment,
    or carry along a spring of living water.
You come yourself to the grave.
 
So come to this grave of mine, Lord Jesus,
    that you would wash me with your tears.
With my dry eyes I have no such tears
    as to be able to wash away my offenses.
With your tears I will be saved, if I am worthy of your tears.
 
With them you will call me out of the tomb of this body and say,
    “Come forth.”
Then my thoughts will not be kept pent up
    in the narrow limits of this body,
    but may go forth to you, and move to the light,
    that I may think no more on the works of darkness,
    but on the works of light.
 
Ambrose of Milan, c.339-397, Bishop of Milan
Fount of Heaven Prayers of the Early Church

___________________________
 
John 11:33-36, 43-44 
 
When Jesus saw her weeping,
    and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping,
    he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.
“Where have you laid him?” he asked.
“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.
Jesus wept.
Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”
 
When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice,
    “Lazarus, come out!”
The dead man came out,
    his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen,
    and a cloth around his face.
Jesus said to them,
    “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

___________________________

Question

What wounds do you have that need the tears of Jesus?

Make us channels of healing and comfort

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
The Potato Eaters, Van Gogh, 1885
 
God of life
God of justice
God of love and mercy
 
God the provider
God our refuge and sustainer
God our comforter
 
Hear the plight of those living in squalid conditions
We present the vulnerabilities of the widows,
orphans, sick, the aged, and unemployed
We present their needs before you
We appeal to you to meet them at their point of need
 
Give them hope and faith in you
Give them courage to soldier on
Give them resilience and tenacity
 
We pray that while the powers that
have tended to ignore their plight
you will be the eyes and ears that see and listen
to their heartfelt needs
 
We pray that you make us the instrument
and the channel of healing and source of comfort;
We appear to you to make us relevant and effective
to those in need.
Amen.
 
complied by Claudio Carvalhaes, professor of worship in New York City
Liturgies from Below: Praying with People at the End of the World
________________________
 
Psalm 82:1-4 
 
God has taken his place in the divine council;
    in the midst of the gods he holds judgment:
“How long will you judge unjustly
    and show partiality to the wicked?
Give justice to the weak and the fatherless;
    maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.
Rescue the weak and the needy;
    deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”
________________________

Question

What is one action you can take
   that could become a channel of blessing for a person in need?

Lord, I believe, help my unbelief!

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
Christ heals a Demoniac, Jean-Guillaume Carlier via Wikimedia Commons
 
​Lord, I want to love you, yet I’m not sure.

    I want to trust you, yet I’m afraid of being taken in.
    I know I need you, yet I’m ashamed of the need.
    I want to pray, yet I’m afraid of being a hypocrite.
    I need my independence, yet I fear to be alone.
    I want to belong, yet I must be myself.
    Take me, Lord, yet leave me alone.
    Lord, I do believe; help my unbelief.
O Lord, if you are there, you do understand, don’t you?
Give me what I need but leave me free to choose.
Help me work it out my own way, but don’t let me despair.
    Come unto me, O Lord – I want you there.
    Lighten my darkness – but don’t dazzle me.
    Help me to see what I need to do and give me strength to do it.
O Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief.
 
Brother Bernard SSF, 1928-2007, English Franciscan
The Oxford Book of Prayer


______________________
 
Mark 9:20-24 
 
And they brought the boy to him.
And when the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy,
    and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth.
And Jesus asked his father,
    “How long has this been happening to him?”
And he said, “From childhood.
    And it has often cast him into fire and into water, to destroy him.
    But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”
And Jesus said to him,
    “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.”
Immediately the father of the child cried out and said,
    “I believe; help my unbelief!”

________________

Questions

When have you prayed, needing God to do something big,
  but were unsure if your request was within God’s will and purpose?
Have you ever approached God with a real need but were unsure of how to pray?  

if you want me to believe in you

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment

The Hem of His Garment, via Pinterest

 
My God, I do not love you,
I do not even desire it.
I am weary of you.
Perhaps I do not even believe in you.
But look on me in passing.
Hide yourself for a moment in my soul,
  put it in order by a breath
  without my knowing it,
  without saying a word of it to me.
If you want me to believe in you,
  give me faith.
If you want me to love you,
  give me love.
I do not have any and I can do nothing for it.
I give you what I have:
  my weakness,
  my sorrow.
  And that tenderness which torments me
  and that you see so well…
  And that despair…
  And that crazy shame…
  My pain, nothing but my pain…
  And my hope!
It is everything.

Marie Noël, 1883 – 1967, French Catholic poet
The Westminster Collection of Christian Prayers

____________________

Mark 5:25-34

And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 
She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors 
    and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse.  
When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd 
    and touched his cloak, because she thought, 
        “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” 
Immediately her bleeding stopped 
    and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.
At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. 
He turned around in the crowd and asked, 
    “Who touched my clothes?”
“You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, 
    “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ”
But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. 
Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, 
    came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, 
    told him the whole truth.
He said to her, 
    “Daughter, your faith has healed you.  
     Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”
 
____________________

Question

When have you been desperate for God to intervene in your life or the life of someone close to you?

a broken, divided family

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment

Prodigal Son by Fr. Sieger Koder

 
We are a broken, divided family
of lonely individuals,
each alone;
truly, we’re not a family.
Communication with each other
seems impossible,
and love vanishes into the void.
Yet both are what we desperately need.
We all need and want
each other,
but we’re too proud to admit it,
or to confess
what we’re each to blame
for our separation,
loneliness, and pain.
We add brick upon brick
to the wall that divides
and isolates us.

You alone are our hope,
O God of our salvation.
Your love breaks down
walls that isolate and divide us.
Your love heals, forgives,
and makes us whole again.
Restore us, O God of our salvation.
Reconcile us,
that we may be a family,
and live.

Vienna Cobb Anderson, Episcopal Priest from Virginia
The Complete Book of Christian Prayer
 
__________________

Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. 
When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing.  
So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 
    ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, 
    ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf 
     because he has him back safe and sound.’
The older brother became angry and refused to go in. 
So his father went out and pleaded with him. 
But he answered his father, 
    ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you 
     and never disobeyed your orders. 
    Yet you never gave me even a young goat 
     so I could celebrate with my friends. 
    But when this son of yours 
     who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, 
     you kill the fattened calf for him!’
 
__________________

Question

What relationships are broken 
    and need God to work restoration and reconciliation?

Annoint the wounds

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
The Good Samaritan, ​Teofilo Patini via Wikimedia Commons
 
Anoint the wounds
of my spirit
with the balm
of forgiveness.
Pour the oil
of your calm
upon the waters
of my heart

Take the squeal
of frustration
from the wheels of my passion
that the power
of your tenderness
may smooth
the way I love

That the tedium
of giving
in the risk of surrender
and the reaching
out naked
to a world
that must wound

may be kindled fresh daily
in a blaze of compassion
– that the grain may fall gladly
to burst in the ground
– and the harvest abound.

Father Ralph Wright, 1938- , Benedictine Monk St Louis Abbey
Sharing the Darkness

_____________________

Luke 10:33-34

But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was;
    and when he saw him, he took pity on him.
He went to him and bandaged his wounds,
    pouring on oil and wine.
Then he put the man on his own donkey,
    brought him to an inn and took care of him.

_________________________

Questions

When have you been wounded caring for another person’s needs? 
Can you trust God to minister to your wounds in these times?

fasting to feast

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
Hagia Sophia Feeding of the 5000, via Wikimedia Commons
 
 
During Lent, let us…

Fast from judging others; feast on the Christ within them.
Fast from an emphasis on difference; feast on the unity of life.
Fast from apparent darkness; feast on the reality of light.
Fast from thoughts of illness; feast on the healing power of God.

Fast from words that pollute; feast on phrases that purify.
Fast from discontent; feast on gratitude.
Fast from anger; feast on patience.
Fast from pessimism; feast on optimism.

Fast from complaining; feast on appreciation.
Fast from worry; feast on trust in God’s Care.
Fast from unrelenting pressure; feast on unceasing prayer.
Fast from facts that depress; feast on truths that uplift.

Fast from lethargy; feast on enthusiasm.
Fast from thoughts that weaken; feast on promises that inspire.
Fast from shadows of sorrow; feast on the sunlight of serenity.
Fast from problems that overwhelm; feast on prayer that undergirds.

Fast from bitterness; feast on forgiveness.
Fast from self-concern; feast on compassion for others.
Fast from personal anxiety; feast on eternal truth.
Fast from discouragements; feast on hope.

William Arthur Ward 1921-1994 Texan Methodist minister
___________________________

Isaiah 58:6-10

Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
    and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
    and break every yoke?
Is it not to share your food with the hungry
    and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
    and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
    and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
    and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
    you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
    with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
    and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
    and your night will become like the noonday.

_________________________

Question

What is one worldly area that you can begin fasting from 
    in order to begin feasting in God’s way?

I need to be led by you

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
The Temptation in the Wilderness, ​Briton Rivière, via Wikimedia Commons
 
Teach me to go to this country
    beyond words and beyond names.
Teach me to pray on this side of the frontier,
    here where these woods are.
I need to be led by you.
I need my heart to be moved by you.
I need my soul to be made clean by your prayer.
I need my will to be made strong by you.
I need the world to be saved and changed by you.
I need you for all those
    who suffer, who are in prison, in danger, in sorrow.
I need you for all the crazy people.
I need your healing hand to work always in my life.
I need you to make me, as you made your Son,
    a healer, a comforter, a savior.
I need you to name the dead.
I need you to help the dying cross their particular rivers.
I need you for myself whether I live or die.
It is necessary. Amen.

Thomas Merton, 1915 – 1968, American Catholic writer and Trappist monk
A Book of Hours

________________________

Matthew 4:1-2

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness
to be tempted by the devil.
After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.
_____________

Question:

In which relationships do you need God to lead you?

God, help me with my thoughts!

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment

book cover of “Scattered Thoughts of a Disorganized Mind” by Andrea Koerner

God help me with my thoughts!
They stray from me, setting off on their wildest journeys.
When I am in church, they run off like naughty children,
   quarreling, making trouble.
When I read the Bible, they fly to a distant city,
   filled with beautiful women.
My thoughts can cross an ocean with a single leap;
   they can fly from earth to heaven,
   and back again, in a single second.
They come to me for a fleeting moment,
   and then away they flee.
No chain, no locks can hold them back;
   no threats of punishment can restrain them,
   no hiss of a lash can frighten them.
They slip from my grasp like tails of eels;
   they swoop hither and thither like swallows in flight.
Dear, chaste Christ, who can see into every heart and read every mind,
   take hold of my thoughts.
Bring my thoughts back to me,
   and clasp me to yourself.
 
Celtic prayer, c.450-c.700
 
_____________________
 
 
You have searched me, Lord,
    and you know me.
 
Search me, O God, and know my heart;
    test me and know my thoughts.
See if there is any wicked way in me,
    and lead me in the way everlasting.
 
_____________________
 
Questions:

What do you need God to do in your thought life?
Can you ask God to heal your diseased imagination?

Continue reading →