Healing ministry helps

I believe it was Dante who referred to Luke as “the scribe of God’s gentleness.” In the garden of Gethsemene, when Jesus is praying before his execution and sweating blood, only Luke’s Gospel has an angel come to comfort him. In our darkest hours, God will send angels to us to comfort us.

Allow me to tell a story. Some time ago I wrote about the lady who came to me for counseling. She had suffered a massive heart attack and had been in a coma for some days. I encouraged her to go to see Betty Brooks at the Touch of Light Healing Center.

Let me give a bit of background about the woman who had the heart attack. She is a lifelong Catholic. There’s even a bishop in her family. So she knows something about faith.

Second, previously this same woman had been a supervisor in an emergency room. So she knows something about medicine.

Presently, this same person is also a clinical psychologist. So she knows something about psychology.

When she came back to me after her healing session with Betty, she said to me: “Father Joe, thank you so much for sending me to Betty. She’s an angel!”

That has been the most consistent response that I have heard over the years.

We humans like to put people in categories ‘new age’ or ‘old age.’ I assure you that Betty is definitely old age – as old as the healing ministries of Jesus and Mary.

Betty is a lifelong Catholic. I have been friends with her and Jim for more than 30 years. I watched their children grow to adulthood. She and Jim were founding members, with their then pastor Father Walter Paulits, of Our Lady of the Chesapeake Parish. Betty taught in the parish’s religious education program. Betty ran its youth ministry program for years. She continues to be a part of various ministries of the parish, especially its outreach to the homeless.

Betty has always had a spirit of service, a spirit of prayer and a spirit of healing. So it was a natural part of her spiritual evolution to open her own healing center on Edwin Raynor Boulevard in Pasadena.

If you care to schedule an appointment, call 410-360-0506. Operators are NOT standing by. This is a humble one-person ministry. But if you’re patient, Betty is persistent and will get back to you.

Anyone who is suffering from chronic pain, from a life-threatening diagnosis, from the loss of a loved one, will profit from Betty’s healing.

For those unable, or not inclined, to call upon Betty, allow me to close with a healing prayer that I say every morning for myself and for all those who have asked for my prayers:

“Heavenly Father, I call on you right now in a special way. It is through your power that we were created. Every breath we take, every morning we awake, and every moment of every hour, we live under your power.

“Father, I ask you to touch us with that same power. For if you created us from nothing, you can certainly recreate us. Fill us with the healing power of your Spirit. Cast out anything that should not be in us. Mend what is broken. Root out any unproductive cells. Open any blocked arteries or veins, and rebuild any damaged areas. Remove all inflammation and cleanse any infection.

“Let the warmth of your healing love pass through our bodies to make new any unhealthy areas so that our bodies will function the way you created them to function. And, Father, restore us to full health in mind and body so that we may serve you for the rest of our lives. I ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.”

Catholic Review

The Catholic Review is the official publication of the Archdiocese of Baltimore.