On the first Sunday of the month, if you come to Grace church, you can ask a prayer team to pray with you during the Eucharist. After you take communion, walk to the back of the church and you will be annointed with oil and your hands will be held and you will be listened to. And then the healing team will put our hands on you and each other and say prayers and lift you and the people you love up to the Divine Healer of us all.
Bring your fears, loves, joys, sorrows. Bring your suffering to be shared, and maybe transformed. Bring your experiences, good and bad. Bring your family and friends. Bring yourself, in your frailty and strength.
And as we pray with you and for you, we, too, will be healed.
Amen.
4 comments:
What a wonderful thing Rachel. All our churches should have such a time. We would, no doubt, be transformed.
Hi Rachel,
This is such a good idea. We have a healing service on Wed. mornings, but those of us who work never get to go. This is an idea I will bring up with the Rector. I think our folks would really like it.
Hi Judith and Nancy,
Our process is so simple... I think it would be easy to replicate. We annoint people with holy oil, hold their hands, listen to their petitions and then pray for them. We do it in a little group, but we have done it one on one, also. The people on the prayer team take communion first, then we stand at the back of the Nave and people come back and line up for prayers. If it is a busy morning, we might split up and do one on one prayer. Otherwise, we pray over people as a group.
It is lead by the Holy Spirit.
Last week, we had an 11 year old girl helping us pray for people. It was very powerful.
There was minimal training for this. We are still, really, in the process of coming up with something formal. But we are not letting a lack of structure stop us from doing it.
As we are annointing with the holy oil, we say:
"I annoint you in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. As we annoint you on the outside, we pray that the heavenly Father, by the power of the Holy Spirit, annoint you on the inside."
Or something like that!
Judith, I think a healing service on Wednesdays is important, too. We have been talking about starting one at our Wednesday services. Maybe just once a month...
Love+
Rachel
Here's the actual quote from the Book of Common Prayer:
I anoint you with oil in the Name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Priest may add
As you are outwardly anointed with this holy oil, so may our
heavenly Father grant you the inward anointing of the Holy
Spirit. Of his great mercy, may he forgive you your sins,
release you from suffering, and restore you to wholeness and
strength. May he deliver you from all evil, preserve you in all
goodness, and bring you to everlasting life; through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Amen.
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